September 19, 2005
A blank canvas | A corporate campus? NASCAR track? Military detention center? Maine business leaders offer ideas for reuse of the Brunswick Naval Air Station
By Joseph Thompson
The U.S. Navy opened the Brunswick Naval Air Station in 1943 on a 1,487-acre lot once used for blueberry picking. Today, the base covers 3,200 acres, employs 657 civilians and 4,106 military personnel, and adds more than $187 million to the region's economy. But soon, that bounty will disappear like the blueberry fields the base supplanted. In August, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission announced the closure of BNAS ˆ a decision that's sure to send economic shockwaves through the Brunswick region, if not the entire state of Maine.
Not surprisingly, Mainers are starting to consider what else the state can do with 3,200 acres situated near the Atlantic Ocean and one of Maine's major metropolitan areas, especially when the piece of land in question happens to feature twin 8,000-foot runways and a host of houses, hangars and industrial buildings. So far, most of the opining has centered on a housing development or a passenger airport. Hoping to expand the discussion, Mainebiz asked some of Maine's business thinkers how they would redevelop the BNAS site. For a diversity of opinions, we polled people who have been monitoring the base's fate closely, as well as those with more distance ˆ literally and figuratively ˆ from the subject.
Rick Tetrev
Retired Navy commander and former chair of the Brunswick Naval Air Station Task Force
Rick Tetrev knows business in Brunswick. He served as the executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Region Chamber of Commerce for five years and vice president of the Midcoast Council for Business Development for four years. He also knows the base, after serving as second in command of BNAS and heading up the committee that attempted to keep the base off the BRAC list. "I've had a lot of association with the economic development side of the house as well as the military side of the house," said Tetrev. "I don't think there's anybody else who has that rounded perspective."
After losing the battle to keep the base open, Tetrev has come up with a big idea for the base that capitalizes on the highly publicized financial tribulations of the airline industry. His redevelopment plan would create an airline maintenance facility. "The number one asset is the aviation asset of that base," said Tetrev. "It's the runways and the infrastructure that goes along with it."
According to Tetrev, the two 8,000-foot runways could handle any plane the airlines brought in to overhaul. And an independent maintenance facility would allow the airlines to outsource one of their biggest expenses. "It's the people," said Tetrev, "the retirement accounts, the medical that they have to take care of, and that's going up, up, up."
Airline maintenance also makes more sense than the oft-mentioned idea of a passenger airport, said Tetrev. "We're not going to win out over Portland [International Jetport]," he said. "Brunswick doesn't have the demographics to get the passenger numbers."
But what about Southwest Airlines? According to Tetrev, there's a belief among those who want a passenger airport that Southwest would sign right up. But Southwest just invested heavily in Manchester, N.H., which has a population base more than five times that of Brunswick. Moreover, military airports are not built to civilian specifications; money would be needed to revamp the site for a passenger terminal.
L. Joseph Wischerath
Executive vice president of Portland-based Maine & Co.
Joseph Wischerath's job is to entice large corporations to locate in Maine. In 2004, T-Mobile USA chose to build its newest customer service center in Oakland thanks in part to the wining and dining of its location scouts by Maine & Co.
When asked what he would do with the massive tract of land in Brunswick, Wischerath listed two caveats that need to be understood before any development can happen. First, there needs to be buy-in among the greater-Brunswick community. "For people outside the immediate geography to start making decisions for [the community] will ultimately result in angst at the minimum, or backlash," said Wischerath, citing recent skirmishes over liquefied natural gas terminals as examples of what can go wrong when the community feels a development is being imposed on it from the outside.
Second, according to Wischerath, is the question of ownership. "This BRAC round is quite different from those in the past in the sense that any base that's being closed down in this BRAC could theoretically go to private developers," said Wischerath. "It's whatever the best offer is. The whole ownership thing has to be resolved before you get any planning or targeting."
Assuming that the community buy-in and ownership are established, though, Wischerath sees the base's most likely future as a multi-use space. "There's not going to be any one thing you could do with it; it's just too big," he said.
Mixed use doesn't mean a lot of small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs, however. Wischerath envisions a bustling corporate campus featuring several large, national companies. "There are three or four major global companies that are from time to time looking for new corporate campus settings," said Wischerath. "But you have to be extremely competitive to pull it off."
Historically, Wischerath said, it has been difficult for Maine to provide a location that would entice these corporations to build a campus here. But Brunswick is located near the largest labor demographic in the state ˆ the greater Portland area ˆ and there's the added benefit of two runways for corporate jets. Of course, Wischerath also cites the fabled quality of life in Vacationland. "I think there are two types of industry that potentially could play," said Wischerath. "One would be a couple of the global IT players," ˆ something along the lines of Microsoft ˆ "or global biotech players."
Mitchell Rasor
Architect and owner of Yarmouth-based MRLD
Mitchell Rasor is one of the tens of thousands of people affected by the closure of the BNAS. His landscape design and urban planning firm, MRLD, had one of its projects (he declined to say which one) placed on hold indefinitely after the announcement.
But Rasor ˆ who in 2003 entered the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition and has received a Congress of New Urbanism Charter Award for his work on the Portland Public Market ˆ has been thinking about options for redeveloping the huge facility. Rasor cited two important factors shaping his thoughts on potential reuse. First is the regional nature of the closure and its impact. "[BNAS] is in Brunswick, but it has regional ramifications," said Rasor. "I see this 3,200 acres as an alarm clock, a wake-up call, to a whole range of issues ˆ not just the closure of the base, but the job situation in Maine, smart growth issues, affordable housing issues and, maybe most critically, the need for the state to start thinking in terms of regional issues rather than home-rule issues."
The second factor Rasor mentioned was a desire to purposefully think outside the proverbial box, and to avoid reproducing models such as the Pease International Tradeport in New Hampshire. "The two ideas I am presenting are 'visionary' and at first pass sound off the wall," he admitted.
Rasor coined the name "Trans-Sylvania" for his first idea, which would use the base's existing infrastructure to create a multi-use development focused on a wide range of transportation issues. In Trans-Sylvania, Rasor would continue the base's aviation tradition through commercial and recreational uses, while adding a housing component. "Homeowners can have their own place to store their planes right there," said Rasor. "They can basically live and breathe their passion."
Trans-Sylvania would also embrace the automobile. Rasor would build a new major NASCAR track, which he says would attract huge crowds ˆ and their coveted tourism dollars ˆ to Brunswick.
But Rasor's idea also looks ahead to the future of transportation. He envisions creating a research facility to study alternative energy and fuels, and a model city to study the relationship between pedestrians and drivers. Such a facility could bring in federal research grants and highway dollars, Rasor said. "[The state has] hired a psychologist to understand how people drive on parts of Route One in Maine," said Rasor. "And this is a similar idea, where you're studying the interaction between design and people's behavior."
Rasor admitted his second idea is controversial, but said it stems from a desire to confront one of the world's hottest political hot-button issues. "The idea is to relocate the Guantanamo base in Cuba to Brunswick," said Rasor. "[Guantanamo] is a Navy facility and a lot of people feel that it's being misused."
The move, Rasor theorized, would keep the Navy and Department of Defense in Brunswick. But more importantly, it could help improve international relationships while fostering a greater accountability in the United States for human rights. According to Rasor's theory, having Guantanamo in the United States would create more transparency about what goes on there. An essential part of Rasor's vision includes a think-tank for international relations and research facilities focusing on counter-terrorism measures.
Rasor believes his concept isn't as far-fetched as it might seem to those who simply recoil from the word "Guantanamo." BNAS was built as a military base, and his idea would adapt the base as the military itself is adapting to a new form of warfare. "It's not the Cold War anymore, and we have different types of international issues we have to deal with," said Rasor. "And, if you took out the base from Guantanamo, all those Navy dollars, jobs and all that supporting work would come to Brunswick."
Roxanne Quimby
Founder of Burt's Bees and northern Maine landowner
Roxanne Quimby, a summer resident of Winter Harbor, understands the process communities undertake when trying to reuse former military facilities. Currently, Quimby serves on the board of directors for Acadia Partners, which works in conjunction with the National Park Service in managing a decommissioned Navy base on the Schoodic Peninsula in Winter Harbor.
That group is attempting to redevelop the Schoodic facility as public space for meetings, conventions and other activities, Quimby said. Although she would encourage Brunswick to consider a similar approach, she admitted that she doesn't know enough about BNAS to say whether such uses would be appropriate there. She also questioned whether the base has environmental issues that will need to be addressed.
Regardless of the specifics at BNAS, Quimby feels the best potential reuse of any military facility is the transformation of one more sword into a plowshare. Although Quimby did not offer specific redevelopment ideas, she said that any peacetime use would represent a step forward from its military past. "When we as a species can transcend the need for military installations and can turn them to productive, peaceful uses, we will have achieved our most noble goals as human beings," Quimby said.
Not surprisingly, Mainers are starting to consider what else the state can do with 3,200 acres situated near the Atlantic Ocean and one of Maine's major metropolitan areas, especially when the piece of land in question happens to feature twin 8,000-foot runways and a host of houses, hangars and industrial buildings. So far, most of the opining has centered on a housing development or a passenger airport. Hoping to expand the discussion, Mainebiz asked some of Maine's business thinkers how they would redevelop the BNAS site. For a diversity of opinions, we polled people who have been monitoring the base's fate closely, as well as those with more distance ˆ literally and figuratively ˆ from the subject.
Rick Tetrev
Retired Navy commander and former chair of the Brunswick Naval Air Station Task Force
Rick Tetrev knows business in Brunswick. He served as the executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Region Chamber of Commerce for five years and vice president of the Midcoast Council for Business Development for four years. He also knows the base, after serving as second in command of BNAS and heading up the committee that attempted to keep the base off the BRAC list. "I've had a lot of association with the economic development side of the house as well as the military side of the house," said Tetrev. "I don't think there's anybody else who has that rounded perspective."
After losing the battle to keep the base open, Tetrev has come up with a big idea for the base that capitalizes on the highly publicized financial tribulations of the airline industry. His redevelopment plan would create an airline maintenance facility. "The number one asset is the aviation asset of that base," said Tetrev. "It's the runways and the infrastructure that goes along with it."
According to Tetrev, the two 8,000-foot runways could handle any plane the airlines brought in to overhaul. And an independent maintenance facility would allow the airlines to outsource one of their biggest expenses. "It's the people," said Tetrev, "the retirement accounts, the medical that they have to take care of, and that's going up, up, up."
Airline maintenance also makes more sense than the oft-mentioned idea of a passenger airport, said Tetrev. "We're not going to win out over Portland [International Jetport]," he said. "Brunswick doesn't have the demographics to get the passenger numbers."
But what about Southwest Airlines? According to Tetrev, there's a belief among those who want a passenger airport that Southwest would sign right up. But Southwest just invested heavily in Manchester, N.H., which has a population base more than five times that of Brunswick. Moreover, military airports are not built to civilian specifications; money would be needed to revamp the site for a passenger terminal.
L. Joseph Wischerath
Executive vice president of Portland-based Maine & Co.
Joseph Wischerath's job is to entice large corporations to locate in Maine. In 2004, T-Mobile USA chose to build its newest customer service center in Oakland thanks in part to the wining and dining of its location scouts by Maine & Co.
When asked what he would do with the massive tract of land in Brunswick, Wischerath listed two caveats that need to be understood before any development can happen. First, there needs to be buy-in among the greater-Brunswick community. "For people outside the immediate geography to start making decisions for [the community] will ultimately result in angst at the minimum, or backlash," said Wischerath, citing recent skirmishes over liquefied natural gas terminals as examples of what can go wrong when the community feels a development is being imposed on it from the outside.
Second, according to Wischerath, is the question of ownership. "This BRAC round is quite different from those in the past in the sense that any base that's being closed down in this BRAC could theoretically go to private developers," said Wischerath. "It's whatever the best offer is. The whole ownership thing has to be resolved before you get any planning or targeting."
Assuming that the community buy-in and ownership are established, though, Wischerath sees the base's most likely future as a multi-use space. "There's not going to be any one thing you could do with it; it's just too big," he said.
Mixed use doesn't mean a lot of small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs, however. Wischerath envisions a bustling corporate campus featuring several large, national companies. "There are three or four major global companies that are from time to time looking for new corporate campus settings," said Wischerath. "But you have to be extremely competitive to pull it off."
Historically, Wischerath said, it has been difficult for Maine to provide a location that would entice these corporations to build a campus here. But Brunswick is located near the largest labor demographic in the state ˆ the greater Portland area ˆ and there's the added benefit of two runways for corporate jets. Of course, Wischerath also cites the fabled quality of life in Vacationland. "I think there are two types of industry that potentially could play," said Wischerath. "One would be a couple of the global IT players," ˆ something along the lines of Microsoft ˆ "or global biotech players."
Mitchell Rasor
Architect and owner of Yarmouth-based MRLD
Mitchell Rasor is one of the tens of thousands of people affected by the closure of the BNAS. His landscape design and urban planning firm, MRLD, had one of its projects (he declined to say which one) placed on hold indefinitely after the announcement.
But Rasor ˆ who in 2003 entered the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition and has received a Congress of New Urbanism Charter Award for his work on the Portland Public Market ˆ has been thinking about options for redeveloping the huge facility. Rasor cited two important factors shaping his thoughts on potential reuse. First is the regional nature of the closure and its impact. "[BNAS] is in Brunswick, but it has regional ramifications," said Rasor. "I see this 3,200 acres as an alarm clock, a wake-up call, to a whole range of issues ˆ not just the closure of the base, but the job situation in Maine, smart growth issues, affordable housing issues and, maybe most critically, the need for the state to start thinking in terms of regional issues rather than home-rule issues."
The second factor Rasor mentioned was a desire to purposefully think outside the proverbial box, and to avoid reproducing models such as the Pease International Tradeport in New Hampshire. "The two ideas I am presenting are 'visionary' and at first pass sound off the wall," he admitted.
Rasor coined the name "Trans-Sylvania" for his first idea, which would use the base's existing infrastructure to create a multi-use development focused on a wide range of transportation issues. In Trans-Sylvania, Rasor would continue the base's aviation tradition through commercial and recreational uses, while adding a housing component. "Homeowners can have their own place to store their planes right there," said Rasor. "They can basically live and breathe their passion."
Trans-Sylvania would also embrace the automobile. Rasor would build a new major NASCAR track, which he says would attract huge crowds ˆ and their coveted tourism dollars ˆ to Brunswick.
But Rasor's idea also looks ahead to the future of transportation. He envisions creating a research facility to study alternative energy and fuels, and a model city to study the relationship between pedestrians and drivers. Such a facility could bring in federal research grants and highway dollars, Rasor said. "[The state has] hired a psychologist to understand how people drive on parts of Route One in Maine," said Rasor. "And this is a similar idea, where you're studying the interaction between design and people's behavior."
Rasor admitted his second idea is controversial, but said it stems from a desire to confront one of the world's hottest political hot-button issues. "The idea is to relocate the Guantanamo base in Cuba to Brunswick," said Rasor. "[Guantanamo] is a Navy facility and a lot of people feel that it's being misused."
The move, Rasor theorized, would keep the Navy and Department of Defense in Brunswick. But more importantly, it could help improve international relationships while fostering a greater accountability in the United States for human rights. According to Rasor's theory, having Guantanamo in the United States would create more transparency about what goes on there. An essential part of Rasor's vision includes a think-tank for international relations and research facilities focusing on counter-terrorism measures.
Rasor believes his concept isn't as far-fetched as it might seem to those who simply recoil from the word "Guantanamo." BNAS was built as a military base, and his idea would adapt the base as the military itself is adapting to a new form of warfare. "It's not the Cold War anymore, and we have different types of international issues we have to deal with," said Rasor. "And, if you took out the base from Guantanamo, all those Navy dollars, jobs and all that supporting work would come to Brunswick."
Roxanne Quimby
Founder of Burt's Bees and northern Maine landowner
Roxanne Quimby, a summer resident of Winter Harbor, understands the process communities undertake when trying to reuse former military facilities. Currently, Quimby serves on the board of directors for Acadia Partners, which works in conjunction with the National Park Service in managing a decommissioned Navy base on the Schoodic Peninsula in Winter Harbor.
That group is attempting to redevelop the Schoodic facility as public space for meetings, conventions and other activities, Quimby said. Although she would encourage Brunswick to consider a similar approach, she admitted that she doesn't know enough about BNAS to say whether such uses would be appropriate there. She also questioned whether the base has environmental issues that will need to be addressed.
Regardless of the specifics at BNAS, Quimby feels the best potential reuse of any military facility is the transformation of one more sword into a plowshare. Although Quimby did not offer specific redevelopment ideas, she said that any peacetime use would represent a step forward from its military past. "When we as a species can transcend the need for military installations and can turn them to productive, peaceful uses, we will have achieved our most noble goals as human beings," Quimby said.
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