The constant roar of airplanes shattered the quiet of this peaceful village in the midst of cornfields in central Illinois.
That was back in the high-flying year of 1917, when military pilots at Chanute Field were learning to fly the Curtis Jenny, a biplane that was a sort of Model T of the sky, in preparation for aerial combat in World War I.
But in 1988, Chanute Air Force Base was shot down. The federal government decided it was about as useful as the 125-mile-an-hour Jenny would be in a Jet Age dogfight.
Chanute was caught in the sights of the base-closing barrage ordered by Congress to save money in the post-Cold War era.
Some residents of Rantoul, located 120 miles south of Chicago near Interstate Highway 57, feared a ghost town would develop when the spigot of federal dollars was turned off. With a population of just under 20,000, it had grown up around the base.
People envisioned an economic disaster, a rush to sell out and leave town, resulting in abandoned and boarded-up homes and businesses.
They were wrong. Rantoul has survived–and thrived.
The positive Rantoul experience may suggest some lessons for the future redevelopment of other military properties, including the former Glenview Naval Air Station.
Though the two former military airfields are in vastly different surroundings–Rantoul is rural, Glenview is suburban–there are similarities. Both are planned for a mix of uses: residential, light industrial, offices, retail, parks and golf courses.
“We’re better off now,” said Gary Adams, Rantoul village administrator. “We have more diversity of business and industry now. The base closing will mean long-term profit.”
Losing the base has opened new doors of economic opportunity.
“All we had before was Chanute,” said Mayor Joseph Brown.
Planning for redevelopment started in 1988, but taps for Chanute officially wasn’t sounded until September 1993.
“There is life after closure, but there were some gut-wrenching months after it was first announced,” recalled Frank Elliott, a retired Air Force major general who was the base commander at Chanute from 1972 to 1974. He now is an economic development consultant for the Village of Rantoul, and has played a key role in redevelopment.
“All the dire predictions contained in a University of Illinois study in 1989 have not come true,” said Elliott. “It forecast that property values in Rantoul would plunge 40 to 50 percent, unemployment would rise dramatically and retail sales would go down 30 percent.”
Instead, the numbers are positive. Elliott noted that the average resale home price in Rantoul has risen to $58,000 today from $52,000 before closure.
Other signs of economic health: The local IGA grocery store has expanded three times since closure, and unemployment in Champaign County is just 3 percent.
But the biggest difference between Chanute and Glenview is that Chanute is still flying. Instead of forgetting its air history, Chanute has sought to capitalize on it during redevelopment.
Though the Air Force closed Chanute’s runways in 1971, the 5,000-foot east-west runway is open for general aviation.
Plus, there is no shortage of vintage warplanes that can be viewed. Parked beside a road is a B-47, the first all-jet strategic bomber, dating from the early ’50s.
“I flew them for several years,” said Elliott, who has piloted everything from B-24s in World War II to giant B-52s.
The fascinating Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum, which opened at the airport in April 1994, displays more than 20 historic aircraft.
A major coup for Rantoul–and potential economic bonanza–was being selected as the site of the U.S. Hot Air Balloon Championships in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Starting next Aug. 7, the events are expected to attract some 200,000 visitors over a 10-day run.
After World War II the 2,125-acre base became a technical training center for jet engine mechanics, weather forecasters, intercontinental missile maintenance and other specialties.
So what to do with 1.7 million square feet of classrooms, workshops, laboratories and hangar space?
One solution was to turn a former weather training facility into an office building, now called the Rantoul Aviation Center. Ameritech Cellular Services invested $2 million to renovate 43,500 square feet of the structure.
“We needed a satellite customer service facility in a building with a big footprint, and in an area with a good labor pool,” said Linda Wokoun, vice president of wireless operations for Ameritech’s cellular services.
“Part of our original purpose was to help in the redevelopment of Rantoul, but it turned out so well that we’re expanding to 250 employees, 60,000 square feet and creating a regional customer service facility,” she said.
Gov. Jim Edgar, who attended Ameritech’s opening last year, said: “We have made aggressive efforts at the state and local levels to market the redevelopment of Chanute, and those efforts are being rewarded with the creation of new jobs.”
Among some 25 other firms that have landed after Chanute’s closing are Rantoul Products, which makes automobile parts, with 1,114 employees; and Caradco Corp., which manufactures wood-frame windows, with 885 employees.
The Village of Rantoul received 60 percent of the base’s property for future industrial and residential projects. To date about 80 percent of the 1,700 acres has been redeveloped.
But there’s ample space left.
“We have a 120,000-square-foot hangar that we’d like to lease, perhaps for some type of aircraft manufacture,” said Elliott.
“The village has gotten into real estate in a big way,” said Adams, noting that incentives are offered to lure businesses to town, even a year or two of free rent.
On the housing front, 900 of the base’s 1,322 existing residences are occupied, according to Elliott.
Patricia Roessler, a real estate agent with Realty 2000 in Rantoul, said that homes on the base start at $44,500, and “are almost giveaways compared to Chicago prices.”
She noted that former military housing is considered “new” because it has to be upgraded and brought up to code before it can be sold.
At Golfview Village, a community that used to house non-commissioned officers, buyers and renters can choose from brick-and-frame townhouses and duplex tri-levels, some on the 18-hole golf course, another leftover amenity from the military.
New residential construction is beginning to sprout in Rantoul, including the new Twin Lakes, a mixed-use development on 49 acres.
Significant features on the Chanute property include:
– Heritage Lake, built by the Air Force, has islands created from the foundations of demolished World War II barracks.
– The former officer’s club has been recycled into a restaurant, the Fanmarker Club. Next door, is the 100-room Fanmarker Inn, which used to be a dormitory for officers.
– The 53,000-square-foot Base Exchange has been converted into a convention center.
– A former 500-room barracks has been transformed into Prairie Village, a retirement home.
– Prairie Pines Campground, now operated by the village, is frequently packed on weekends.
– A 250-acre farm is another holdover from the old base.
While Chanute’s rebirth is progressing smoothly, another military closing–Ft. Benjamim Harrison in Indianapolis–has generated some controversy.
The 2,500-acre facility, located 12 miles northeast of downtown, was listed for closure in 1991.
About 1,700 acres was transferred to the State of Indiana for use as a new park. Ft. Harrison State Park–a rolling expanse of woods, nature preserves, four small lakes, a creek, a heron rookery and a habitat for the endangered Indiana bat–was dedicated last Oct. 24.
Camp Glenn, which was a prisoner of war camp during World War II, now is the site of stables.
The Army required the state to purchase the existing 250-acre, 18-hole golf course, which has been updated and recently reopened.
“Our fear was that if the golf course were sold to private developers, homes would be built around it,” said Gary Miller, Indiana’s assistant director of state parks and reservoirs.
“There was a lot of support for the park,” said Kathy Mezykowski, landscape architect/planner for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
She noted that attendance hasn’t been high yet, explaining: “People are still finding the park, and everything is not developed yet.”
Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith is not a fan of the big park.
“Ft. Ben was not done well,” said the mayor, who believes the park did not need to be as large as it is.
“Maybe some of that recreation area could have been devoted to residences, or some other property-tax-producing use. Base closings should be viewed as opportunities to create more value than before,” Goldsmith said.
That goal may be achieved on the remaining 550 acres of the old fort, which was purchased for $6 million from the Army by the Ft. Harrison Re-use Authority (FHRA), which isn’t a developer, but an agent for selling the property.
J. Lynn Boese, executive director of the FHRA, said more than 25 percent of the 550 acres already has been sold or is under contract for residential, office, light manufacturing, retail and educational uses.
The residential component will include a variety of housing types:
– Former senior officer housing facing the green space of the old parade ground is priced in the $200,000 to $400,000 range for 5,000 to 6,000 square feet of living area. Forty homes are available.
– The 30 duplexes of Standish Estates, previously known as Sergeants Row, are priced from $130,000 to $175,000. Also planned is Boston Commons, 100 new zero lot line homes in the $130,000 to $170,000 range.
– Turnberry, to be built on the 55-acre site of demolished family housing, will offer 440 new units at $100,000 to $200,000.
Other re-uses of the 400 existing buildings, some of which date from 1903, include the takeover of the former fort headquarters by the FHRA, and an Army fitness center that has become a YMCA after a $2.5 million rehab.
Other projects include a medical center, affordable senior housing, and government offices for the City of Lawrence (the fort is in both Indianapolis and Lawrence).
Another military closing in Indianapolis rates much higher with Mayor Goldsmith. He was a prime mover behind the privatization of the former Naval Air Warfare Center, which occurred in January of this year, saving some 2,500 jobs, a $150 million payroll and an estimated $1 billion impact on the Indianapolis economy.
In World War II, the 860,000-square-foot plant made the famed Norden bombsight. Today, the center designs and develops electronic devices for jet fighters, submarines and satellites.
Under the privatization agreement, the city leases the buildings and equipment to Hughes Technical Services Co. for $1 a year.
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In next Sunday’s real estate: Will plans for Glenview really fly?
