A building that’s home to hundreds of contract workers at the NASA Glenn Research Center would remain open for at least 16 more months, under a plan that has Fairview Park officials breathing easier.
Earlier this year, NASA Glenn officials raised the specter of moving workers out of the 1960s-era building to raze it, along with a smaller building on the 19-acre site.
Demolition would mean the loss of 320 jobs and some $400,000 a year in income tax for Fairview Park, until a new office building emerged on the site.
NASA Glenn is redeveloping and consolidating its World War II-era campus, most of which is in Brook Park. The site in question sits in Fairview Park, a short drive from the core of the campus.
As an alternative to demolition, NASA Glenn had entered serious talks with a local developer to move workers to the smaller building on the Fairview Park site until the 120,000-square-foot structure was remodeled.
But officials with NASA Glenn and Hemingway Development Inc., the development arm of Geis Cos., could not reach a deal. That raised the likelihood of demolition of the buildings, as soon as this summer.
Fairview Park officials appealed to U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Cleveland, whose district includes NASA Glenn.
In an April letter, Kucinich urged NASA Glenn officials to reach a deal that “does not leave this important parcel . . . without business development.”
NASA Glenn Acting Director Ramon “Ray” Lugo said Friday that contract workers would remain on the site until the end of their contract in September 2011.
Read Full Story
Article courtesy cleveland.com
