page_title: Plattsburgh Air Force Base
section_title: Current status
hierarchical_section_title: Plattsburgh Air Force Base / History / Current status
caption_attribution_description: English: A pair of operating tables at the closed Air Force base here are ready for crating and shipping. Airmen from New York's Stratton Air National Guard Base helped prepare equipment taken from the closed base hospital for transport by sea to Nicaragua. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Mike R. Smith)
context_page_description: Plattsburgh Air Force Base is a former United States Air Force Strategic Air Command base covering 3,447 acres in the extreme northeast corner of New York, 20 miles south of the Canada–United States border, located on the western shore of Lake Champlain opposite Burlington, Vermont, in the city of Plattsburgh, New York.
  The base closed on 25 September 1995, pursuant to the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1990 and the recommendations of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission. It is now a civilian airport and industrial complex, operated by the Plattsburgh Air Base Development Authority. The airfield is now known as Plattsburgh International Airport.
context_section_description: Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corporation (PARC), led by the nationally known planner, David Holmes,  was created to manage the 5,000-acre (20 km²) property. Holmes had overseen the redevelopment plan which included a mixed-use solution to overcome the economic shortfall that occurred when the military moved out. Uses included Aviation, Biotechnology, Industrial and Recreation. Ultimately, PARC split up the base into 165 parcels for redevelopment.
  While community leaders feared in 1995, at the time of the actual closure, that the North Country's economy would collapse, this did not turn out to be the case; the base actually only accounted for $42 million in economic impact (about 8 percent of the local economy)  because it was so isolated.  It was anticipated that it would take 20 years to replace the impact.  But in 1996, Dave Werlin of Great Northeast productions and PARC's Director of Planning, Nate Sears, devised a way to make up $30 million in 3 days.
  On 16 and 17 August 1996, PARC hosted a massive music concert on the runway of the old decommissioned airbase by the band Phish. The concert, known as The Clifford Ball, was attended by 70,000 people  and added $30 million to the local economy. The concert was the largest Rock Concert in North America in 1996 and drew attention from The New York Times, MTV and numerous news media world-wide.  The concert was possible due to a coalition of entities, including the New York State Police, County Sherriff, City of Plattsburgh, CVPH Medical Center, the Clinton County Health Department and numerous other private and public organizations. Although Phish wanted to return, PARC's Board of Directors decline in a 6-1 vote and subsequent Phish concerts were held at the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, Maine, where they generated $25 million and $40 million for the local community, respectively in 1997 and 1998.
  As of 2016, PARC tenants on former airbase properties include:
  Wood Group
  Pratt & Whitney Industrial Turbine Services
  Sikorsky
  UPS Air Freight
  FedEx Air Freight
  PrimeLink
  Gradient etc.
  The site also hosts a number of specialty services on site  including acres of parks, trails and playing fields as well as an 18-hole golf course, a day care center and a gym.
  On the original Military Reservation, on the shores of Lake Champlain, is the Old Base Museum Campus. There are five museums within 200 feet of each other - the Clinton County Historical Museum, the Air Force Base Museum, the Champlain Valley Transportation Museum, the Kids' Station Children's Museum and the War of 1812 Museum, all housed in former military buildings. Included on the Museum Campus are edifices built in the 1890s including Officers' Row, the old Headquarter's Building and the old firestation. The historic district around the Oval parade ground saw General Leonard Wood's founding of the Plattsburg Idea, a training program started to prepare officers for duty in WWI. There is also a Memorial Chapel, the Clyde A. Lewis Air Park, and the Old Post Cemetery, in which a Spanish American War Medal of Honor recipient is buried. Two of the original structures built just after the War of 1812 are still on Campus - the Old Stone Barracks and the original powder magazine.
  The U.S. Air Force lists Plattsburgh among its BRAC "success stories."
  The base's reuse and the circumstances surrounding it were chronicled in Flying High Again: PARC's Redevelopment of Plattsburgh Air Force Base, written by Marian Calabro and published by CorporateHistory.net in 2008.
caption: Operating tables being taken out of the old base hospital, in the Double Cantilever Hangar
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