Lowell Sun
Thursday, September 9, 2004

Campaign launched to save Hanscom
Group hopes tech focus, funding offer will help

By Rebecca Lipchitz, Sun Staff

BEDFORD -- Massachusetts is ready to make its official pitch to the Pentagon
to save Hanscom Air Force Base: Make the state the military's center for
research and development, and the state will pick up more than half of the
$410 million cost.

As the military undergoes a strategic realignment, bases targeted for
closure are fighting for their existence

Members of the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative (MassDTI), a
public-private partnership formed for the purpose of saving the base,
unveiled their plan last night at a meeting of the Hanscom Area Towns
committee, with members from Bedford, Lexington, Lincoln and Concord.

The Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process continues through
the fall of 2005, when it will announce which military bases will close.

In order to prove that the base could "absorb mission," or take on new
military projects, MassDTI proposes $410 million in improvements to Hanscom,
$241 million of which would come from the state.

"In the BRAC process, you're either giving or getting mission. We have to
demonstrate that we can get mission," said Alan Macdonald, executive
director of MassDTI.

The other major selling point of the proposal, said MassDTI President Chris
Anderson, is the state's collective brainpower, fueled by research
institutions such as Harvard University, MIT, the University of
Massachusetts, and the local high-tech industry. The cluster of military
technology efforts in the state also includes the Army Soldiers Systems
Center in Natick.

"We must convey to the Pentagon the importance of access to our intellectual
capital in the success of the country's future war-fighting capability,"
said Anderson, a Westford resident who is also president of the
Massachusetts High Technology Council.

U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, who has been talking with Pentagon officials about
the possibility of expanding Hanscom for more than a year, said the military
would not be what it is today without the technologies developed at Hanscom,
specifically the Electronic Systems Center at the heart of the military's
command and control operations.

"New technology has created a revolution in the time it takes to identify
and destroy a target. In the Gulf War that process took 72 hours. Today it
takes 20 minutes," said Meehan, a member of the House Armed Services
Committee.

Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy and Gov. Mitt Romney also praised the plan
yesterday. They will meet with Pentagon officials next week to formally
submit the proposal.

But the cost of living and doing business in Massachusetts isn't exactly
competitive. To make the plan attractive financially, the state would pay
$241 million toward the site's redevelopment, including improving the
Hartwell Avenue exit off Route 128.

The rest of the price tag is $168 million from private developers, who would
build 800 units of housing on the base after leasing the property from the
government.

The investment for the state is not risky, officials say; in fact, they say,
it's not investing in Hanscom that could hurt the economy.

The $241 million in state funding, which would only be spent if the plan is
realized, would cost $16.5 million a year for 30 years, and generate $25.2
million in new tax revenue from 4,000 new high-tech jobs, said Macdonald.

Hanscom's estimated direct and indirect impact is $3 billion in economic
activity and 30,000 jobs. If the base were to close, the state would
directly lose $15.2 million a year in tax revenue from 5,750 lost jobs, he
said.

Considering the jobs that exist indirectly related to base operations (such
as contract work done by companies such as Raytheon and BAE Systems) the
economic impact could be the loss of 15,000 jobs, costing the state $40.9
million a year.

If the Pentagon signs on to the concept, expansion of the base could lead to
the construction of new office and housing space.

New structures could be added without building on open space, Macdonald
said, partly because it the base was inefficiently planned in the first
place. There is 2.5 million square feet of unused space, 1.25 million of
which is parking lots.

Communities support the expansion plan to preserve the "economic engine" of
the base, and because the plan was developed with their input, said Sara
Mattes, a Lincoln selectman and member of the Hanscom Area Towns committee.

"They (MassDTI) bent over backwards to be sensitive to our concerns and
public process," she said.

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