High-tech boost seen for region
The base-closing plan unveiled by the Pentagon yesterday would accelerate New England's transition from a blue-collar bastion to a high-tech economy specializing in research and development.
A pair of research-oriented bases tied to Boston-area industry and university labs would be preserved, with Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford gaining more than 1,000 technology jobs. Hanscom's expertise in command-and-control communications draws on the strengths of the region, as does the Army's Soldier Systems Center's work in Natick, developing technologies to equip and outfit military personnel.
On the other end of the economic spectrum, thousands of jobs would be lost, including those of civilian welders, electricians, and mechanics, at Navy sites along the Maine and Connecticut coasts. The shutdown of Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, about 60 miles north of Boston, would eliminate more than 4,500 jobs, most of them civilian.
''This doesn't feel like a body blow because the bases we're losing aren't linked to the growing areas of our regional economy," said David Luberoff, executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. ''But this continues the hollowing-out of the good-paying blue-collar jobs."
While the expansion of Hanscom and the retention of the Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick were cause for celebration in Massachusetts, where a well- organized lobbying effort had trumpeted the brainpower of the two Boston-area bases, New England as a whole faces a net loss of more than 14,000 jobs under the Pentagon's base realignment and closure process, known as BRAC. The military's recommendations still must be approved by an independent BRAC commission and sent on to Bush and Congress.
Among hard-hit New England states, Massachusetts looked to be a big, if politically unlikely, winner in the Pentagon restructuring, though details about new jobs are still being worked out.
Governor Mitt Romney, at a State House news conference yesterday, said the new military jobs at Hanscom would boost the state's high-tech economy. Thousands of private-sector jobs could be created through a ripple effect, suggested Christopher R. Anderson, president of the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative, which led the two-year, $2.5 million lobbying effort to spare Hanscom and the Natick site.
''It's a huge shot in the arm for us, and it's something we can build on," Romney said. He said he plans to send Ranch C. Kimball, the state's economic development secretary, to military hubs around the country to recruit defense contractors to the Route 128 corridor to work on projects for the research bases.
The sparing of Hanscom and Natick were big victories for state political and business leaders, who had urged the Department of Defense to weigh the importance of intellectual capital along with more-traditional military measures in assessing bases.
''They've evaluated the length of the runway, the number of hangars they have, the number of planes they have -- all criteria which is absolutely irrelevant with regards to the importance of Hanscom as the center for intelligence and information," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. ''This is the first time that they've looked at the research."
The state Legislature approved $242 million in bonds in February to expand Hanscom, but it is not clear now whether all the funds will be needed. The bond money, to add 1.25 million square feet of space, assumed the military would add 5,000 jobs. Since only 1,100 jobs are planned, only part of the funds might be spent.
As part of the same bond package, the Legislature set aside an additional $19 million to enlarge the base in Natick by 110,000 square feet, enough to add 200 jobs. That, like the money for Hanscom, was contingent on the bases staying put. In the case of Natick, the Army's Soldier Systems Center will remain open, though it will lose 19 jobs. Pentagon officials have yet to specify exactly how they will take advantage of the Massachusetts plan.
Romney and Kennedy have approached the Army about expanding Natick's role through a consortium of businesses that would develop military technology. A quasipublic organization, the John Adams Innovation Institute in Westborough, is studying the idea, said Alan J. Macdonald, executive director of the technology lobby. MassDevelopment, the state's economic development authority, has been designated as the project manager for the state's role in the expansion at Hanscom and Natick.
State officials yesterday were trying to determine what jobs the Pentagon wants to send to Hanscom and what infrastructure will be needed. Their plans included $168 million from a private developer for 800 units of housing. The new jobs are not expected to arrive for two years, and a smaller number of jobs will be transferred. But it could take between two and four years for new buildings to be constructed, Anderson said.
Elsewhere in New England, the BRAC plan cast a darker shadow. In addition to Portsmouth, the Pentagon recommended closing the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Conn., and realigning the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine. All told, more than 17,000 jobs will be eliminated at the three Navy sites.
Russ Thibeault, president of Applied Economic Research in Laconia, N.H., said the closing of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which overhauls nuclear submarines on Seavey Island in Kittery, Maine, across from Portsmouth, N.H., will drain more than $500 million a year from the area economy. ''It's a hard jab to the jaw, but it's not a knockout blow to the Seacoast economy," Thibeault said.
Even after the Pentagon's plan is approved, the bases would not close immediately. Historically, it has taken more than three years on average to complete the shutdown of a military base, and often several more years to clear up environmental contamination before the site can be redeveloped, said Christie I. Baxter, principal research scientist at MIT, who led a research project that studied nearly 100 major base closings between 1988 and 1995.
Globe correspondent Davis Bushnell contributed to this report. Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com. Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
