Google Signs 60-year, $1.16 Bln Lease On NASA Airfield And Hangars

(RTTNews) - NASA said that, in an effort to reduce costs and shed surplus property, it signed a lease with Planetary Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Google Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL), to manage Moffett Federal Airfield or MFA, an agency facility located in Moffett Field, California, and rehabilitate its historic Hangar One. NASA estimates the lease will save the agency about $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.

The U.S. General Services Administration or 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.

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.

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.