Most of the acreage at the former George Air Force Base has been transferred to the community since the base closed in 1992. The Air Force Real Property Agency, responsible for buying, selling and managing Air Force real estate, has transferred more than four-fifths of the 5,062-acre former base.
The site is now known as Southern California Logistics Airport (SCLA). The Air Force Real Property Agency has an agreement with the SCLA Authority (presently the Victorville City Council) and the SCLA Authority has a public/private partnership with developer Stirling Enterprises, to redevelop the site. The SCLA Authority supports warehouse distribution facilities, aviation, air cargo, manufacturing, education, and the multi-million-dollar High Desert Power Plant.
SCLA's 15,050-foot-long runway is the second-longest runway (after Denver International Airport) at a public-use airport in the U.S., providing adequate landing conditions for even the largest and heaviest aircraft. A second 9,100-foot runway is also available. Boeing tests aircraft at SCLA, such as its 787 Dreamliner and the 747-8 freighter, built with a maximum takeoff weight of one million pounds. The military has tested the Predator drone at SCLA as well.
The airport control tower operates 24/7 and SCLA is a designated U.S. Port of Entry staffed around the clock with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents. SCLA is a Foreign Trade Zone, offering federal tax incentives to businesses locating there, and a Local Agency Military Base Recovery Area (LAMBRA) Enterprise Zone, allowing California tax credits to qualifying businesses operating there.
Other employers at SCLA include General Electric, which tests new engine designs there, and Million Air, a fixed-base operator which sells fuel to private, commercial and military aviators, and provides janitorial and food services.
Leading Edge Aviation Services, Inc., which describes itself as the world's largest aviation painter, leases three hangers at the former base. Leading Edge expanded at SCLA after winning the contract to repaint the first 350 United and Continental aircraft following the United/Continental merger in May, 2011. About a third of the work will be done in Victorville, according to the company's website.
Southern California Aviation offers transitional services to aircraft owners, parking aircraft on cement during times they are not needed, such as during economic downturns. The company has capacity at SCLA to store 200-350 planes. Services include periodically starting the engines and providing other needed maintenance and inspections to parked planes.
Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies company, has repaired and upgraded Russian commercial aircraft in a hangar at SCLA since 2006. Pacific Aviation Resources and Technology also operates at SCLA, specializing in commercial aircraft maintenance, technology and consulting.
Victor Valley College School of Aviation Technology, formerly the SCLA School of Aviation Technology, trains aircraft mechanics. Students spend 2,050 hours in an 82-week program. Graduates take oral and written licensing tests administered by the Federal Aviation Administration in three different subjects.
In addition to the airport, manufacturing and distribution facilities have been developed in an area of the former base known as SCLC - Southern California Logistics Centre. SCLC is home to the largest speculative industrial "green" building in the world, built by Stirling Capital Investments. Known as Distribution Centre 1, the building received LEED Gold Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council in late 2009. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification recognizes energy-saving and environmentally friendly building practices. The one-million-square-foot building uses about half (48.5 percent less) the energy of a conventionally built structure the same size. Stirling Development's Chief Operating Officer Brian Parno estimates potential energy savings of about $275,000 annually.
After sitting empty for about two years, the building was leased to two tenants in late 2011: United Furniture Industries (UFI) will occupy about half the building and M&M/Mars will occupy the other half. In September, 2011, UFI announced plans to hire 400 people to work there within two years.
Stirling developed a smaller environmentally friendly industrial building at SCLC known as Distribution Centre 13A. This 296,490-square-foot industrial building was LEED Gold certified in March, 2009. Dr. Pepper/Snapple built a bottling plant at the site. Another company -- Plastipak -- moved nearby to supply plastic bottles for Dr. Pepper/Snapple. An industrial wastewater treatment plant, built to handle the wastewater requirements of the bottling plant, was designed with the secondary purpose of using reclaimed water for irrigating airport landscaping.
Newell Rubbermaid operates a bulk distribution facility for its infant and juvenile products manufactured under its Graco brand on the former base. Excel Scientific manufactures high-performance sealing films and laboratory equipment at SCLC.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons opened a 900-acre facility at the former base in 2000. A census of prisoners is available on the Federal Bureau of Prison's website. As of mid-September, 2011, the facility housed 3,409 prisoners in a medium security setting, 293 in minimum security conditions and 1,543 in a maximum security U.S. Penitentiary at the former base.
These industries have brought an estimated 2,000-plus new jobs to the Victorville area.
The master plan for SCLC includes 60 million square feet of commercial and industrial development. Currently in the first phase of building, approximately three million square feet, have been built.
Future plans also include Southern California Rail Complex (SCRC), a 3,500-acre rail-served multimodal complex. Once built, goods imported via Los Angeles, Long Beach and other ports could be trucked to SCLA, then transported to the rest of the country via truck, rail, or air. The area is served by Union Pacific and BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) railways.
