South Weymouth Naval Air Station: SouthField

South Weymouth Naval Air Station was a United States Navy air field that started operations in 1942 and became established as a Navy blimp base during World War II. It closed in 1997 after the Base Realignment and Closure Committee of 1995 recommended it to be eliminated.

Although talk of redevelopment of the base started immediately after its closure – after 13 years – the first dirt is about to be turned for the construction of the East-West Parkway that will support the development.

The 1,500 acre mixed-use development of the airfield, located 13 miles south of Boston, will include over 2 million sq ft of retail and office space, 2,800 homes, public parks, a golf course, as well as a $100 million film studio. Total investment is estimated to be $1.5 billion.

This will be an interesting project to watch.  This certainly is not the first air base to be closed (or redeveloped) as part of the "peace dividend" but there are many of these sites across the US that are available for redevelopment and likely would be catalysts for those communities impacted by the loss of jobs from these closed government facilities.  There is a lot to this redevelopment and I will add another post to talk about the details in the coming weeks.  For an overview - see the SouthField website:  SouthField 

Here is the article about the development from the Boston Globe:

Air Base Project Nears Takeoff