The United States Government has chosen Google’s Planetary Ventures LLC subsidiary to run and renovate a federal airfield that is most frequently used for personal jets of Google executives.
Announced on Monday, Google will soon gain full ownership of the 1,000-acre airfield which was a former U.S. Navy base. Built in the 1930s, the U.S. Navy used it for communication and afterwards the site was managed by NASA’s Ames Research Center for the past 23 years.
This will be an ideal base for Google as the airfield is only four miles away from Google’s Mountain View, California headquarters. Financial and legal terms are still in the works as Google, NASA and the General Services Administration must all agree and sign off.
As a part of the deal, Google must renovate the airfield’s three hangars, including the Silicon Valley landmark as currently its massive size and location are affecting a major highway. Google has also agreed to pay for a nearby golf course to receive a complete upgrade as the base will once again have aircraft taking off and landing.
“We are delighted to move ahead in the selection process and we look forward to working with both GSA and NASA to preserve the heritage of Moffett Federal Airfield,” Google said in their statement.
The sale is an overall beneficial one, as taxpayers will no longer have their taxes washed away on an unused airfield and Google has the time and money to maintain such an airfield. Google made it clear that they will cover 100% of the cost and is unlikely to ever be financed by the U.S. Government.
As Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with Chairman Eric Schmidt, now have a place to hold their seven jets, two helicopters and company jet, I see this as a successful deal. As the U.S. debt is ever rising it helps to release such an airfield to a business that will put it to good use along with upgrading it to 2014 standards.
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