After plenty of difficulty in dealing with their
federal government landlords at Moffett Field, Google's leaders are nearly set
to build a facility for their planes at Mineta San Jose International
Airport.
A San Jose City Council vote in April is set for the plan
recommended by airport director Bill Sherry. It beat out two other proposals for
the 29 acres along Martin Avenue and would place an $82 million facility at the
airport in a partnership between Signature Aviation and Google's leaders,
represented by Blue City Holdings, San Jose, LLC. The 270,000-square-foot
facility is designed to achieve LEED gold status and would serve other private
planes besides Google's fleet, which include several Gulfstream jets and two
former airliners made by Boeing.
The plan comes after NASA and the White
House did not embrace a proposal in late 2011 for Google's executives to restore
and lease Hangar One at Moffett Field for their fleet, an endeavor estimated to
cost over $45 million.
"They are doing this because NASA didn't say
yes," to restoring Hangar One, said Lenny Siegel, a member of the San Hangar One
committee. "This is an indication that the proposal got rejected."
The
proposal for Hangar One from H211 LLC - the company formed to operate the Google
fleet at Moffett -- was considered a blessing by those who had been fighting to
preserve Hangar One for years and could not get Congress, NASA or the Navy to
fund its restoration. The iconic structure was recently stripped to its bare
frame in an environmental cleanup.
"I think this is a the equivalent of a
great gift falling out of heaven right in our laps." said Congresswoman Anna
Eshoo at the time. "There is not any other option on the table today to preserve
Hangar One."
The proposed terminal would apparently be a boon for the
San Jose Airport, which will see $2.6 million a year in a 50-year lease, plus as
much as $700,000 a year in taxes and fuel fees.
"We're pleased that the
evaluation process for the development of Mineta San Jose International
Airport's West Side is now complete, and the recommended outcome will prove to
be incredibly prosperous for SJC, the City of San Jose, and Silicon Valley,"
said Sherry, San Jose airport director of aviation, in a statement.
The
airport's $1.4 billion upgrade to the terminal area, completed in 2010, opened
up a significant amount of land on the west side, he said.
"Now, our
focus must be the proposed private development and $82 million investment of the
West Side by Signature Flight Support, to support the private aviation needs of
local high-tech and other companies, most notably the personal aircraft of the
principals at Google," Sherry said.
Since 2007, Google's leaders have
housed the fleet at Moffett Field, paying $1.3 million a year to rent Hangar 211
from NASA, which has struggled to pay for airfield operations. But the deal has
been controversial one, drawing bad publicity.
Critics have called it
favoritism for Google's executives, who are able to use a federal airfield
usually reserved for used by the government and government contractors. The
lease has been justified though the use of Google planes for NASA's research,
including the gathering of data from the atmosphere and observing meteor
showers, but it is unclear how often of how consistently the planes are used
that way.
Siegel said H211 is still interested in using Moffett, possibly
in addition to San Jose's airport. But he and former NASA Ames administrator
Bill Berry expect Hangar One and the Moffett runways to be declared excess
property by NASA soon. Siegel says the community should be ready for such a move
by creating an advisory board on possible future uses for Moffett.
H211
director Ken Ambrose did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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