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Feb 10, 2014, 5:50pm PST Updated: Feb 11, 2014, 4:36pm PST
Google's Moffett Field plans include
robots, space tech, aviation

2. Nathan Donato-Weinstein
Real Estate Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal
Email | Twitter
The cavernous Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield was built by the Navy in the
1930s to hold military dirigibles. Now a Google Inc. subsidiary plans to use the
350,000-square-foot structure to develop robots, rovers, space and aviation
projects, a government official said.
The hangar, and the rest of the 1,000-acre Moffett Field, are part of a pending lease
between Google and the federal government announced Feb. 10. The deal
highlights further expansion for Mountain View-based Google as it reaches beyond
its Web-search and advertising revenue machine to research and development into
emerging technologies.
And it becomes another real-estate puzzle piece Google is collecting in an effort to
lock down land for growth near its headquarters. Moffett Field is directly adjacent to
Google's planned Bay View project, a 1.1 million square-foot development the
company placed on hold last year.
Google's Planetary Ventures LLC plans to use Hangar One — the 8-acre, historic
structure that preservationists have been fighting to save — for research, testing,
assembly and development of new technologies related to space and aviation,
NASA spokeswoman Lauren Worley said in an email.
Google’s Planetary Ventures would also hold the lease to two additional hangars, a
working airfield, a California Air National Guard base and a golf course. The
company will take on managing the airfield for the government. The site also used
to have barge access to the San Francisco Bay, a tantalizing possibility in an era of
Google ferries shuttling workers to San Francisco.
“There’s a lot they could potentially do out there,” said Lenny Siegel of the Save
Hangar One committee, who closely tracks activity at Moffett. He's also a board
member for the Earth, Air and Space West Educational Foundation. “That’s what
we’re waiting to find out.”
One thing is clear: The potential deal showcases Google’s incredible growth and
ambition as it adds staff and branches out into more business lines such as selfdriving cars, robots and wearable technology.
For now Google isn’t saying much about its plans for Moffett Field. A statement
issued Monday reads: “We are delighted to move ahead in the selection process and
we look forward to working with both GSA and NASA to preserve the heritage of
Moffett Federal Airfield.”

3. Lease makes sense
Google has garnered press for its groundbreaking work on self-driving cars and
other emerging technology. Its work in space is less well known.
Its efforts include the Google Lunar X Prize, a space competition sponsored by the
company and organized by the X Prize Foundation. It offers $40 million in
incentive-based prizes for the first private aircraft to land safely on the moon.
Before it could use the huge Hangar One structure, Google would have to sink
millions into "re-skinning" it — essentially, putting on a new siding. That's cheered
preservationists such as Siegel, who have fretted for years over the building's longterm future after the government removed the toxic skin in 2012. (Read more about
Hangar One's complex history here.)
"Recovering that hangar is probably a money-losing deal," said Siegel, who has
been pushing to have a public science museum at the airfield. "There's some charity
involved here."
In a memo, NASA official Richard J. Keegan Jr. praised the Planetary Ventures
proposal. He wrote that two other entities submitted responses to the competitive
bid. One was "nonresponsive" because it did not include a required bid deposit. The
other "lacked any sunstantive plans to re-side Hangar One and manage (the
airfield)."
"In addition to immediately re-siding Hangar One, (Planetary Ventures) proposes to
provide significant investment to upgrade the existing golf course, rehabilitate
Hangars 2 and 3, and create a public use/educational facility as a benefit to the local
community," Keegan wrote. "These additional investments exceed the requirements
in the (request for proposals)."
"With GSA and NASA's announcement today, Hangar One has been saved and will
be restored and rehabilitated, honoring its place in South Bay history and
community identity," Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who has been active in trying to
save the hangar, said in a statement. She added that "Moffett Federal Airfield has
and will continue to play a critical role as home to the 129th Rescue Wing," a
National Guard unit.
While Google’s playbook for the larger site is not yet known, the site makes sense
from a strategic perspective: To the west is Mountain View’s North Bayshore, an
area thick with millions of square feet of Google buildings. On the other side of the
airfield is Sunyvale’s Moffett Park office submarket, where Google has been growing
by leaps and bounds in Jay Paul’s ever-growing office campuses. It would make
sense that Google would want to control the entire area.

4. Planetary Ventures already leases the 42-acre Bay View site at the north end of the
NASA Ames Research Center for an ultra-green office campus — its first ground-up
development. (Early construction was put on hold last year as Google worked out
design issues.)
“They’re kind of encircling NASA Ames,” Siegel said.
Google’s executives have long had an aviation relationship with NASA: It’s where
they store their personal planes through a separate company they control called
H211. But the prospective lease announced Monday is with a direct subsidiary of
Google, not a separate plane operator. That opens up possibilities beyond aviation,
Siegel noted. H211, meanwhile, is working on a major new jet center at Mineta San
Jose International Airport.
One potential is real estate development, though the jury is still out on how much
could be built: The federal government previously stated that the site could
accommodate a mere 90,000 square feet of new development (that’s less than a
Target retail store). But observers I spoke to on Monday said anything is possible in
negotiations.
And consider this: A couple years ago, a massive, 3 million-square-foot research
campus with the name University Associates Silicon Valley was proposed for 77
acres just south of Hangar One.
That project eventually went on hold because of high infrastructure costs, but the
entity that proposed it — a joint venture of UC Santa Cruz and the Foothill-De Anza
Community College District — still holds the ground lease. Experts I spoke with said
Google’s lease of Hangar One could pump life into those plans once again. It
included something Google has long wanted in the area: Housing. (Read an update
from last year here.)
Another possibility: A Google ferry terminal near Mountain View. Siegel points to
recent tests of a Google-run ferry between San Francisco and Redwood City and
Oakland.
“But that doesn’t do them much good, because Redwood City is too far from
Mountain View,” he said. “A ferry coming into Moffett Field, where they have jobs
just across the creek, could help them solve the problem of all the buses.”
It’s not so crazy. After all, this is a company that built its own multi-story barges on
both coasts unbeknownst to anyone until an intrepid Cnet reporter did some
digging. Siegel points out that the Navy used to float a barge to Moffett through the
Guadalupe Sough on a regular schedule years ago, an effort that required
substantial dredging every once in a while. (The theory was first raised last month
by the Mountain View Voice.)

5. Next steps
Officials stressed that scheduled commercial flights are not in the cards.
Neighboring city leaders had been worried that an air cargo operator might lease
the site.
It's uncertain when a deal could be final. NASA officials told me Monday afternoon
they did not have a timeline. Officials first put the complex up for lease last May.
There’s also no word on how much Google might pay to rent the ground and the
facilities, but it apparently proposed a significant amount. Keegan wrote: "In
addition to the investments, PV proposes significant rental payments over the term
of the lease agreement."
Rehabbing Hangar One – whose toxic skin was painstakingly removed last year –
could cost tens of millions of dollars alone.
“If it includes fixing up the runways, that's probably tens of millions of dollars,”
Siegel said. “It’s tens of millions for Hangar One, and the other hangars are in bad
shape too. It could be $100 million in value in what Google’s planning to invest in
Moffett Field.”
Nathan Donato-Weinstein covers commercial real estate and
transportation for the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
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