Victorville's Economic Bet on Closed Air Force Base Is Starting to Pay Off

By PHIL WILLON

Oct. 7, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

VICTORVILLE — Back when he sold Chevrolets, Rick Carbajal loved to see those Air Force flyboys wander into the showroom. An officer’s pay plus the need for speed added up to another Corvette or Camaro rolling off the lot.

“Happened all the time,” the Victorville native said with a laugh.

Carbajal’s happy days ended in the early 1990s when the Pentagon abandoned George Air Force Base east of this parched desert city, taking about 5,000 military personnel and 700 civilian jobs with it.

“I still don’t think this place has recovered totally, not yet,” said Carbajal, 58, who now sells used cars at a small lot across from the bus station on historic Route 66. “Living in the desert makes you tough, though. We’re holding on.”

And after a long economic dry spell, unmistakable signs of life are sprouting along the dusty highways outside of town--mile after mile of mini-billboards hawking spacious new suburbanesque homes “starting in the $100,000s.” Other signs point the way to two new federal prisons, the first of four lockups that eventually will call Victorville home.

But the brightest news came in late September: BAE Systems, a billion-dollar British aerospace and defense contractor, announced that it will open an aircraft maintenance and modification operation at the former air base. City officials expect 800 new, good-paying jobs. BAE has pledged to hire mostly from Victorville and nearby communities.

“We’ve been hearing from the naysayers for the past 10 years,” said City Manager Jon Roberts. “It looks like we . . . proved them wrong.”

BAE’s announcement is the biggest payoff yet for Victorville’s gamble on the abandoned base--annexing it to the city and promising to invest millions of dollars to upgrade and promote the airfield as Southern California’s premier location for cargo flights and aircraft maintenance services.

Some regional planners called it a foolish bet. In 1994, the Southern California Assn. of Governments rated the regional military bases shuttered by the Pentagon on their potential for conversion into major commercial airfields. George, now called Southern California Logistics Airport, finished dead last.

That never discouraged Victorville.

“The facility had everything we needed . . . and there was just a very welcome attitude on behalf of the people there,” said Jim Modig, president of BAE Systems. “The bottom line is that we intend to become a significant employer there.”

Modig said his company checked out almost all of the closed military bases in the country, including Norton Air Force Base near San Bernardino and March Air Force Base in Riverside County. BAE determined that George--a full-service facility with available hangers, a 13,000-foot runway and room for expansion--best fit its needs.

BAE, which is already moving in, expects to see an immediate surge in business from airlines taking measures to make their aircraft more secure since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Steve Erie, a UC San Diego expert on military base conversion and transportation infrastructure in Southern California, said Victorville has gone a long way toward silencing those skeptical of its dream of a bustling airport in the Mojave Desert. Erie has referred to the proposed facility as the “Southern California Intergalactic Airport” because, he said, it is so far from civilization.

“I’m not sure the naysayers are totally proven wrong, but Victorville is showing life,” Erie said. “They’ve really tapped into a good niche market, and doing business in Victorville is a lot cheaper than doing business near LAX.”

Economic Boom Spurs Housing Construction

The 5,000-acre airport already is home to a handful of small aircraft-related firms, including Southern California Aviation, a 200-employee company that stores and maintains more than 100 jumbo jets and other planes the airlines have temporarily mothballed.

Within the last year, Goodyear has started building a massive distribution center in the city, and candy maker Mars Inc. announced plans to build one right next door, bringing an estimated 200 more jobs to the area.

In April, Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group broke ground on a 750-megawatt power plant in Victorville, the first major electricity plant to be built in Southern California in more than a decade. The project has created about 300 construction jobs and will permanently employ about 30.

City officials said the economic boom has rekindled housing construction and caught the eye of national retailers. A year ago, there wasn’t a single Starbucks in this city of 68,000. Within months, Victorville will have three.

“Business is really picking up around here,” said Marty Martinez, sales manager for Amsco Janitorial Supplies & Equipment. “If these new companies bring in half the jobs they’re saying, it’s going to be great news for the area.”

Martinez said business dropped nearly 25% when the base closed and hasn’t rebounded completely.

Hesperia chiropractor Bill Breitenbach said his business took a major hit when the Air Force left, even though he didn’t have many patients who were in the military.

“It was like someone turned off the money faucet,” he said. “The price of homes just plummeted. People were upside down. They were owing more on their house than it was worth.”

A few miles away in Adelanto, the tiny town closest to the former base, the depth of the economic loss is clear. During the day, the streets are all but deserted. Dozens of boarded-up homes collect tumbleweeds. In 1999, the city was so desperate for revenue that it leased out its minor league baseball stadium for an all-night rave.

“Not too many jobs around here,” said Jeff Tompkins, 35, a laid-off print-shop worker. “I mean, you’re out in the middle of nowhere out here. I hope what they’re saying is true.”

Tompkins, who lives with his sister and her four children, said he has been living mostly on welfare for the last two months.

Local government planners estimate that nearly 50,000 people who live in the high desert valley surrounding Victorville, including Adelanto, Apple Valley, Barstow and Hesperia, commute far outside the area because of the dearth of jobs.

But with new major employers coming to town, Victorville officials are hoping to keep their residents--and their money--closer to home.

“That’s what we need,” said Dan Wells of A&M; Auto Repair. “The high desert doesn’t need any more strip malls.”