Signs Paperwork Giving Planetary Ventures LLC Use Of The Facility

In an effort to reduce costs and shed surplus property, NASA has signed a lease with Planetary Ventures, LLC to manage Moffett Federal Airfield (MFA), an agency facility located in Moffett Field, California, and rehabilitate its historic Hangar One. NASA estimates the lease will save the agency approximately $6.3 million annually in maintenance and operation costs and provide $1.16 billion in rent over the initial 60-year lease term.

MFA, currently maintained by NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, includes approximately 1,000 acres of land located on South San Francisco Bay. The land includes Hangars One, Two and Three, an airfield flight operations building, two runways and a private golf course.

"As NASA expands its presence in space, we are making strides to reduce our footprint here on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “We want to invest taxpayer resources in scientific discovery, technology development and space exploration – not in maintaining infrastructure we no longer need. Moffett Field plays an important role in the Bay Area and is poised to continue to do so through this lease arrangement.”

After a fair and open competition, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and NASA selected Planetary Ventures, LLC as the preferred lessee in February 2014 and began lease negotiations. The negotiated lease, which is neither a procurement action nor a government contract, will put Hangar One to new use and eliminate NASA's management costs of the airfield, with the federal government retaining title to the property.

“Hangar One is an important landmark in Silicon Valley,” said GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini. “GSA was proud to support NASA in delivering the best value to taxpayers while restoring this historic facility and enhancing the surrounding community.”

Planetary Ventures currently plans to invest more than $200 million in capital improvements to the property and commits, in this lease, to several undertakings that will benefit the public upon completion, including:

• Refurbishing and protecting historic Hangar One in accordance with standards established for historic properties by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior;
• Rehabilitating historic Hangars Two and Three;
• Operating MFA in accordance with the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for public and private use; and, Creating an educational facility where the public can explore the site’s legacy and the role of technology in the history of Silicon Valley.

“We are fortunate to have had significant input from surrounding communities on setting a future path for Moffett Field,” said Ames Director S. Pete Worden. “With the involvement of the citizens of Mountain View and Sunnyvale, we are confident the results will benefit all parties.”

Planetary Ventures will assume operation of the site following the finalization of a joint plan with NASA, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and California Regional Water Quality Control Board to ensure continued environmental stewardship and protection of the existing remedies of the site.

As a tenant to NASA, Planetary Ventures will be required to comply with all applicable laws, regulations and policies, including those on topics of historic preservation, environmental compliance, security, health and safety, and airfield operations to support ongoing missions and other government objectives.

“We look forward to rolling up our sleeves to restore the remarkable landmark Hangar One, which for years has been considered one of the most endangered historic sites in the United States,” said David Radcliffe, Vice President of Real Estate and Workplace Services at Google Inc.

Once renovations are complete, Hangar One will again be home to high-tech innovation as Planetary Ventures begins using the historic facility for research, development, assembly and testing in the areas of space exploration, aviation, rover/robotics and other emerging technologies. Hangars Two and Three will be used for similar purposes.

Not everyone is thrilled with the arrangement, however. The consumer group Consumer Watchdog said in a news release that giving Google a lease for Moffett gives the company "unprecedented control of a federal facility to use as its own playground," according to John M. Simpson, director of Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project.

Last December a NASA audit found that the jet fleet owned through a company called H211 by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and Co-Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin received an unwarranted discount worth up to $5.3 million on jet fuel purchased from the government while basing their fleet of corporate jets at Moffett. Google the U.S. Government eventually resolved that issue.

"This is like giving the keys to your car to the guy who has been siphoning gas from your tank," said Simpson. "It is unfairly rewarding unethical and wrongful behavior.  These Google guys seem to think they can do whatever they want and get away with it – and, sadly, it looks like that is true."

Google has said it plans to test its driverless cars at Moffett, which Consumer Watchdog says would enable it to escape California regulations requiring that such vehicles must have a driver capable of taking over control.

FMI: http://historicproperties.arc.nasa.gov/history/index.html, www.consumerwatchdog.org