Gerlaugh Farm, as Wright-Patterson leaders call it, is one of two parcels the base has announced could be open to extended use leases or EULs. Such leases open federal property to investors or users for possible leasing and development. Those investors pay fair market rent or in-kind considerations to use what could be prime commercial sites.
“We’re always looking for a variety of opportunities. I was very familiar, I worked at Mission Point when I was at Miller-Valentine,” Woodard told the Dayton Daily News in an interview. "And I re-engaged with the (Mission Point) land owners. We are advancing a development plan.
“Really, we just saw that market as potentially having some really solid growth opportunities, just based on all the activity at the base, with the addition of programs and people, and that’s impacting what’s available for kind of an on-site co-location with some of the defense contractors,” he added.
The core of the development is going to be defense contractor, office and lab-type space, Woodard said.
“We have started design on an initial building out there, and I suspect that we’ll be moving that along to where we can start to enter into the public approval process in the first part of next year," Woodard said.
Meanwhile, Wright-Patterson is gathering information about possible “mutually beneficial commercial projects on non-excess Air Force real estate,” said Ashley Sadorra, the 88th Air Base Wing Strategic Initiative office program manager.
Besides Gerlaugh Farm, the second tract of base land to be made open to EUL exploration is what the base called “the Area B Hilltop Tract, which covers 23.92 acres.”
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