Oct. 11—GRAND FORKS — An agreement between Grand Forks County and Grand Forks Air Force Base is being held up as a model for military installations across the country, according to an Air Force spokesperson.
That agreement is the Enhanced Use Lease (EUL) that allows the county to lease land from the base, and sublease to GrandSky Aviation Park, the
first commercial unmanned aircraft systems park in the U.S.
GrandSky and the Grand Forks EUL has been used by the Air Force as an example of how other military installations leverage their non-excess lands, said Laurel Falls of the Air Force’s Department of Public Affairs.
“Grand Forks’ success in blending industry, education and economic development with its Air Force mission is considered highly unique and successful among Enhanced Use Leases at other bases,” Falls said.
The EUL has its origins in the mid-2000s, when Grand Forks Air Force Base lost its tanker mission. At that time, there were real concerns in the community of base realignment and what impact that might have on the city.
“I mean, we went from a $600 million-a-year economic impact that the base had to almost losing the base,” Grand Forks County Administrator Tom Ford said.
The Grand Forks County Commission, City Council and Economic Development Corporation Board came together to find a way to make the local economy less reliant on the base in case it closed. Through a number of economic impact studies, the idea for the EUL and the commercial UAS park arose in 2011.
Taking the EUL from board rooms to reality required something of a leap of faith, Ford said.
“There were some in the community at the time that thought that GrandSky, which is the EUL, would never happen — it would never work,” he said. “It wound up being the County Commission that said, you know what, we’re going to step forward.”
At the time, there were a couple of other communities that had EULs with their local military installations, Ford said — but nothing like the economic development planned for Grand Forks.
“One was a gigantic radar on top of a Holiday Inn in Florida, and it was covered by a beach ball that was, at the time, probably the most talked about EUL,” he said. “But (the Grand Forks) EUL was going to be in the middle of nowhere on a base that was in danger of being closed to use restricted airspace on federal (Department of Defense) land for commercial use, and so many, many people just said, ‘this will never work. This will never happen. It’s a waste of time.'”
Commissioner Cynthia Pic, who was on the commission at the time, recalled that there were more than just economic dollars at stake. The county was also at risk of losing some funding for education if the base closed and if students attending rural Grand Forks County schools left the area.
She said she figured the EUL was a risk worth taking.
“We knew it was a risk, but what did we have to lose by doing that?” she said. “We hoped that it would become an economic development engine, and it would drive something in our rural community besides agriculture — not that agriculture isn’t important, but at the time, crop prices weren’t good either.
“There were a lot of farmers that were at the point of, ‘am I going to make it or not?'” she continued. “We thought, we have to do something to try to drive more economic development in our county.”
Grand Forks County, with its wide open, uncongested skies, wound up being a natural fit for the project, Ford said, and by all measures, GrandSky has proven
to be a boon for the community.
It has resulted in new industry, the addition of dozens of high-paying jobs, and new attention on Grand Forks as a major player in UAS innovation.
It also put the spotlight back on Grand Forks Air Force Base, Ford said, and made it “the premier base for future (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) cyberspace missions.”
It’s far above and beyond the county’s original goal, which was to keep Grand Forks Air Force Base open and in the community, Commissioner Bob Rost said.
“Grand Forks Air Force Base is sitting in such a good spot where, years and years ago, we were looking at maybe even getting eliminated, and now, because of this enhanced lease, this base is right at the top, and possibly even getting more missions than what it already has now because of the enhanced lease to GrandSky,” Rost said.
The county has taken great pride in feedback from the Air Force that the EUL is the premier model of what other communities should replicate as they are developing their own enhanced use leases, according to Gracie Lian, government relations manager for the county. Ford added that the Air Force Civil Engineering Center has called the Grand Forks EUL the “poster child” for how EULs should be done.
“We, Gracie and I, get emails all the time from other communities that say, how do you do it? How’d you pull it off?” Ford said. “And part of us, we don’t want to share that secret sauce, but it definitely is recognized on a federal level.”
Robert Moriarty, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, was in agreement.
“I really appreciate the great partnership between the state and the Department of the Air Force and look forward to opportunities to expand this partnership in the future,” he said.