(San Marcos) - Satterfield & Pontikes has begun building a United States military complex on 19 acres on the south side of Clovis Barker Road in San Marcos, less than a mile from I-35.

The San Marcos Armed Forces Reserve Center (AFRC) will consist of four buildings: a training building (61,796 sf), heated storage (29,756 sf), organization maintenance building (25,805 sf) and an unheated storage building (600 sf).

The federal government bought the land for $1.77 million from Houston-based Clovis Barker Business Park LP and awarded Satterfield-Pontikes Construction a $23,320,394 contract to build the facility. The contract completion date for the facility is Feb. 19, 2011.

The facility will include a library, learning center, physical fitness area, vault, weapon simulator, and areas for administrative, educational and assembly-related work.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, all of the units are not likely to be training at the same time, and the normal usage of the AFRC will entail approximately 200 soldiers training three weekends per month.

The majority of the troops’ weekend meals will be procured from local businesses, though the San Marcos AFRC will be equipped with a kitchen for soldiers to train in meal preparation.

As the AFRC will not house soldiers, the military will also procure lodging services from local businesses. The San Marcos AFRC, one of 17 planned for Texas, will be a 600-member training facility for two United States Army Reserve units and four Texas National Guard units.