Almost 50 years ago, Dartmouth leased 18 acres of land for $1 to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to establish a Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover. The lease, signed in 1961, is set to expire June 20, 2009, and the parties are currently negotiating the terms of a new agreement.
If a new lease is granted, it would have to reflect the market value of the property more accurately, according to Paul Olsen, director of real estate for the College. The structure of the original lease offers evidence that the College did not expect to forego income from the property indefinitely, he said.
"They clearly intended to have that agreement come to an end after 50 years," Olsen said. "Otherwise, they would have done something different."
Neither Olsen nor Corps attorney Gary Pasternak knew exactly what prompted the original deal or brought about its terms. Both noted, however, that CRREL's presence in Hanover benefits the town as well as the Corps. Pasternak listed service to the nation, employment and support for environmental understanding among the opportunities CRREL has brought to the town.
Dartmouth also benefits from having Corps research occur in close proximity to the College, Olsen added. The College's Institute of Arctic Studies often collaborates with CRREL.
At 300,000 square-feet, the CRREL building complex is the largest industrial space in the Upper Valley, according to an Oct. 17 article in the Valley News.
"I don't see any possibility of us not coming to some sort of arrangement which would have CRREL remaining on the site," Olsen said.
The Corps hopes to maintain the continuity of its operations and Pasternak said CRREL intends to stay in its current location.The Corps is looking to negotiate a lease that is "definitely long term" according to Pasternak, although the Corp's real estate office, the Real Estate Community of Practice, is handling the negotiations on CRREL's behalf.
CRREL could still choose to stay in Hanover even if it fails to reach a deal with the College, Olsen said.
"At a minimum, they could take the property by eminent domain," he said. Eminent domain refers to the power of the government to appropriate private property for public use.
The Corps's schedule will largely determine the timetable for negotiations, Olsen said, because the Corps will need to undergo a federal approval process that is "a lot more cumbersome" than the College's. The Corps initially raised the possibility of purchasing the property, but Olsen said the approval process limits CRREL's options.
"I think that would take a lot more time than they have available," he said.
The Real Estate Community of Practice has already conducted an appraisal of the property but has yet to share the results with the College, Olsen said.
The Valley News cited the value of CRREL's land and buildings in Hanover at $15.1 million, a figure that Olsen said must be based on tax assessments and may not be an accurate approximation.
Because the government is exempt from paying taxes on the property, all figures are speculative, and there are no satisfactorily comparable properties, according to Olsen. The facility also includes "classified" labs, for which individuals need a specific security clearance in order to gain any access, further complicating the valuation process.
"It's very hard to say whether a tax assessment is a good indicator of value or not, because the assessor is assessing hundreds and hundreds of properties across town in a fairly general way, and this would be a fairly specialized process of evaluation," Olsen said.
Along with the 18 leased acres, the Corps owns a tract of about 10 acres towards the rear of the property. In 1980, the Corps purchased the land for a frost effects research facility, Olsen said, citing an Oct. 9, 1980 article in the Valley News. In addition to the Hanover complex, CRREL has field offices in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, Pasternak said, calling the Fairbanks office CRREL's "gateway to the Arctic."
Recent CRREL research topics have included climate change and overcoming the effects of brownouts and whiteouts during military aircraft landings, according to the CRREL web site.
The Real Estate CoP did not respond to inquiries from The Dartmouth by press time.
