People often ask us how we determine if the redevelopment effort of the former Naval Air Station is a successful venture and how do we measure that success. The primary metrics we use to measure the redevelopment progress include: number of new business entities; collective employment growth; employee payroll; level of private and public capital investment; increases in property valuations and associated taxes; and the rate of real estate activity, meaning property leased or sold.

As of this month, we have over 100 business entities operating on the former base properties in Brunswick and Topsham, collectively employing 1,224 people. We do work with the State to gather company payroll numbers. Based upon last year’s survey, the collective payroll at the end of 2015 was about $80 million. We will have the 2016 payroll numbers in a few months. To date, we have realized over $350 million in private and public sector investment and approximately $2.7 million is paid in local property taxes annually to the towns of Brunswick and Topsham from the redevelopment effort. Of the $1.2 million square feet (s.f.) of building space that was controlled by MRRA, we have sold 40 buildings, comprising nearly 500,000 s.f. and over 370 acres of land, since the closure in 2011. Of the 765,000 s.f. of building space we currently control, over 400,000 s.f. is under lease (52 percent).

This is all great news and suggests a successful redevelopment program to date. But the ultimate measurement of success will be when the economic impact of the Brunswick redevelopment effort surpasses the impact NASB had on the local, regional and state economy when it was fully functioning as a military installation. At its peak, there were approximately 5,000 active duty sailors, reservists and civilian employees at the former base, with a combined payroll of approximately $130 million. The military did not pay property taxes, but did pay approximately $1.5 million annually to the local communities to fund the education of federal dependents and community services to the housing areas. While it may take a while to see 5,000 employees on the property, we do believe that the majority of jobs being created here tend to be for higher skills and greater pay than for those jobs that existed previously on the former base. Thus, the payroll bar will be eclipsed with much fewer total employees.

While we at MRRA are certainly gaining on these ultimate numbers, we still have a ways to go to achieve the benchmarks. If you look at national trends for base redevelopment projects, it takes anywhere from 10-20 years for the reuse activities to start exceeding the previous economic effects. This is dependent on a number of key variables, including, but not limited to: the location of the facility to key labor markets; nature of the economy; level of community and state support; availability of financial resources; private sector involvement; nature and amount of environmental constraints; political issues; nature and timeliness of property conveyed; and the state of the facility (infrastructure and structures) when transferred. Typically, bases near major urban areas tend to be quicker to redevelop than rural bases, with some notable exceptions of former bases near Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Philadelphia. In addition, some very rural bases will never reach that benchmark. With that said, we believe we are on track to reach the economic benchmark on or before year 12 of the closure, which will be 2023. In contrast, the Pease tradeport in Portsmouth, NH, which is considered to be a hugely successful redevelopment project, took about 17 years to meet the benchmark.

Base redevelopment efforts are very challenging and complex real estate development enterprises, involving multiple players, issues and opportunities that are all highly variable. It’s important to understand that this reuse project has its own unique characteristics and challenges and we are part of the greater Maine economy, which is very dynamic. Accordingly, businesses will come and go and individual employment may vary from month to month, depending upon economic conditions and specific business characteristics. With that said, our overall success metrics for the redevelopment project are all showing very positive trends, which is the key. We are well ahead of our plan and we are viewed as a model project on the national stage.

Steve Levesque is the executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority.