0920_September Comstock's Magazine September 2020 | Page 74

McClellan Park
In 1939, McClellan Air Force
Base was named in honor of
Maj. Hezekiah McClellan.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MCCLELLAN PARK
Realignment and Closure program. The
original art deco buildings from the 1930s
and ’40s now share space with newly
constructed warehouses — a juxtaposition
of where the park came from, and
where it is going. This coexistence of
history and modernity takes place across
a campus of more than 3,000 acres that
houses a multitude of industries, including
distribution, logistics, construction supply,
storage, data, manufacturing, maintenance,
research and aviation, as well as
amenities like a hotel and conference
center, restaurants, residential housing
and even a museum.
During its 65 years of operation, the
base — named in honor of Maj. Hezekiah
McClellan in 1939 — was one of only four
air depots in the country responsible for
repairing and overhauling military aircrafts
as well as maintaining and managing
weapon and communication systems.
When the nation entered a period of
relative peace in the mid-1990s, the U.S.
Department of Defense designated bases
around the country, including McClellan,
for closure.
Sacramento not only lost thousands
of jobs, but also a historical and cultural
jewel in the crown of the North Highlands
community. The Sacramento Metro
Chamber of Commerce and other local
organizations lobbied to keep the base
open, but, ultimately, an even better opportunity
presented itself: The base would
be transformed into a multiuse business
park, utilizing existing assets and adding
on where needed through a partnership
among the Air Force; Sacramento County;
and the McClellan Park development
group consisting of MBP Ventures, LDK
Capital (owned by developer Larry Kelley,
whose company was chosen by the county
to execute the base conversion) and
Industrial Realty Group.
The Air Force agreed to a “hot
transfer” arrangement, which meant that
LDK was able to lease parts of the park
to private businesses before the base
was officially closed. This meant that the
conversion needed to be efficient yet meticulously
planned to ensure safety protocols
were met — particularly concerning
environmental cleanup — while allowing
for a smooth transition from military to
civilian usage.
The base went through four rounds
of privatization: the initial pilot program,
wherein the Air Force turned over the
first 60 acres to the developers, then
three rounds of Finding of Suitability for
Early Transfers, during which parts of the
property were deemed safe for industrial
use while environmental cleanup continued.
Soil decontamination from industrial
chemicals is still ongoing, with the Air
Force retaining control over any sites that
require soil cleanup 15 feet and deeper
(including groundwater), while sites that
only required remediation in the top 15
feet of soil were allowed to be privatized,
according to Steven Mayer, the remediation
program manager and BRAC environmental
coordinator for the Air Force Civil
Engineer Center.
Once the transfer was approved, it
was up to Kelley and his design team to
bring their vision for this new phase of
McClellan’s life. To keep the site’s “historic
flavor,” Kelley says he worked with county
specialists to determine which buildings
needed to stay as-is for preservation
purposes (many of the poured-concrete
structures erected in the 1930s are still
standing, one of which now houses
Kelley’s offices). Next, the team decided
which existing buildings needed interior
and exterior improvements, and, finally,
where new construction would take place.
“Our first issue was trying to make
it look more like a business park,” Kelley
says. “We took the gates down, landscaped,
changed the paint colors — anything
we could do to soften the military
base to be more inviting.”
74 comstocksmag.com | September 2020