NASA to close two Fairview Park buildings
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview Park
Published Jan. 25, 2006

City officials are moving quickly to recoup income tax which will be lost after NASA’s Glenn Research Center closes two buildings within Fairview Park’s boundaries.

“This is a serious issue for us,” Jim Kennedy, Fairview Park’s director of development, told West Life. “It’s our intent to do everything we can to replace that income....We’re going to be very aggressive about it as a tiny city.”

Representatives of a potential developer and tenant, who officials would not name, toured the buildings Thursday. However, at the Jan. 17 council meeting, Kennedy described the interested parties as “a known developer in Cleveland and a president of a large company looking for additional office space.”

“Their current needs are approximate to the space that will be available as are their current leasing arrangements,” Kennedy said. “So this could be a nice fit depending on a number of other issues.”

Building 500 and Building 501, as they are known at NASA, are located on the north side of Brookpark Road across from the main entrance to Glenn.

Hundreds of civil servants have taken buyouts and hundreds of contractors have been laid off in recent months. But Dallas Lauderdale, facilities division chief at Glenn, said the decision to close the 42-year-old buildings was made in order to save operating and maintenance costs. The closures are part of Glenn’s efforts to manage the center in the most efficient way, Lauderdale said in an interview.

“The jobs issue is really a separate issue,” he told West Life.

While the two buildings occupied only five acres of Glenn’s campus, they housed Fairview Park’s largest group of employees.

“This is truly devastating news, as it is our biggest employer,” Mayor Eileen Patton told council Jan. 17.

Patton told West Life she first learned the buildings could be closed a few months ago. She received a letter in December from Glenn officials stating their intention to close the buildings. This decision was confirmed in a Jan. 5 meeting, the mayor said.

Building 500, which currently employs 449 individuals, will close in October 2007, Patton told council. Building 501, with 72 employees, will close this October.

Options for maintaining income tax from the site range from moving another government agency to the site, leasing the buildings to a private company, or completely redeveloping the site, Kennedy said.

“There are a variety of initiatives already in place,” Kennedy said, adding the city has been in contact with the congressional delegation as well as the Greater Cleveland Partnership with regard to possible assistance in bringing another employer to the site.

Lauderdale said the agency intends to retain ownership of the land. How this will affect the city’s efforts to lease the buildings or redevelop the site is unclear.

Bob Fails, associate director at Glenn, said NASA is open to all ideas on using the land in a way that benefits Fairview Park.

“Our commitment to the city is to work with them in any arrangement that they might find appropriate,” Fails told West Life. Options include demolishing the existing buildings and building new structures with NASA maintaining ownership of the land, Fails said.

Patton, who toured the buildings earlier this month, described them as being in very good condition. The buildings at one time employed 1,000 employees, she noted.

“I feel that the buildings should stay intact,” the mayor said.

Ward 1 Councilman James Robatin said he was disappointed the area’s congressional delegation failed to give the city a head’s up that the buildings were being abandoned by NASA, as well as failure to keep Glenn a top priority of the space agency.

In comparison, Robatin said, congressmen from Alabama were proactive in working in keeping federal projects from being cut in that state.

“They’re years ahead of the budget cycle when these things are announced,” Robatin said. “And it’s just disappointing to see meetings set up after the budget cuts have been announced and, of course, after the media has been informed that they’re going to be holding those meetings, to discuss something that’s really already been decided.”