While efforts to attract an air-cargo carrier to the state’s largest runway at the March Air Reserve Base near Moreno Valley haven’t borne fruit yet, several other projects are setting the stage for large-scale commercial use of the base, officials say.
Reuse officials hope to enlist a master developer for the base, and have received three responses to a request for qualifications, said Charles White, a Moreno Valley councilman and last year’s chairman of the March Joint Powers Authority Commission, a panel that oversees reuse efforts at the base.
In 1997, the March Joint Powers Authority,which oversees private-sector reuse of 6,500 acres of the base, plus 450 acres of nearby industrial land,assumed control of approximately 4,400 acres of the base, agreeing to jointly use the airfield and facilities with the Air Force.
The Air Force will retain control of 2,100 acres, which it will operate as the March Air Reserve Base, now home to the 452d Air Mobility Wing and the 163d California Air National Guard. More than 1,000 acres of other properties and facilities are used by branches of the military and by local public agencies.
Stephen Albright, executive director of the March Joint Powers Authority, believes excellent potential exists to pull the base and its properties back into a revenue-producing mode, reasoning that redevelopment goals will be reached more easily once the final deed is transferred.
Developments and projects under way at the base this year include:
- Selection of a master developer this summer for overall development of 950 acres north and south of Van Buren Boulevard, in accordance with base and civilian authority reuse plans. Developers submitted requests for qualifications to the authority this month, outlining their ability to conduct land use planning, attract tenants and tap financing sources. Albright said he expects the commission to come up with a recommendation in June from among the submissions, with cost negotiations to follow.
- Selection of an airport manager. The deadline for applications was in May.
- Construction on 14 acres of a 225,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution center for Philips Consumer Electronics. The Philips building shell is completed and offsite work such as the installation of a fire-suppression pump is nearly finished, according to Greg Diodati, whose Diodati Investments is a partner with the March International Logistics Center LLC, the company commissioned by reuse officials to bring air-cargo carriers to the airport. Philips may start filling the warehouse with product in about 30 days, he said. The warehouse operation, which is being relocated from Anaheim, will employ about 110.
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Final right-of-way acquisition is nearly complete and final engineering is almost done for a federally funded, $9 million extension of Oleander Avenue to Indian Avenue. The 4.5 mile, three-lane access road will connect the airport with about 5,000 acres in Perris and Moreno Valley that are targeted for industrial use. Albright said the road work may begin in the fall.
n Construction is expected to begin this summer on the Category II Navigational Aid, an approach-and-landing system that helps pilots enter the area in bad weather. The project will include center-line lighting, improved edge lighting, and signs along the runway and taxiways. The $3.7 million project is funded by the Federal Aviation Administration. - An application was submitted this year to the U.S. Department of Commerce for a Foreign Trade Zone designation covering about 4,000 acres. The designation would make tax breaks and other incentives available to businesses in the zone. Albright said the move drew no opposition during a public hearing this year and he believes the application will be approved.
Along with military operations, the 13,300-foot runway,the longest in Southern California,is being used by Boeing Co. to test new jets. Boeing has conducted three “test drives” since December, Albright said. The agreement between the joint powers authority and Boeing, reached in 1998, brings the base invaluable word-of-mouth advertising by an aviation-industry leader, he said.
“You can’t buy that kind of marketing,” Albright said.
So far, the arrangement with Boeing hasn’t helped a two-year effort by reuse officials to land a commercial cargo carrier at the base. Albright expects such an agreement sometime in the next three to five years.
Tucker is a staff writer at the Business Press, Inland Empire.
