The online auction for the former Navy Information Operations Command installation in Pendleton County ended Monday night, after a bid of $11.2 million went unchallenged for a 24-hour period.
The successful bidder, known as "Bidder #7" in the anonymous auction, did not actively take part in the bidding until Saturday, with a $6.95 million offer for the Sugar Grove property.
On Tuesday, the General Services Administration accepted the bid and awarded a contract to the bidder. The GSA expects to close on the sale of the property within the next 60 days, according to a GSA spokeswoman.
More information about the high bidder and reuse plans for the base will be available later, she said.
Pendleton County Commission President Gene McConnell said he is encouraged that a substantial offer was made for the 123-acre base.
"I'm hopeful that a party willing to spend that kind of money to buy the property is also willing to spend even more to customize the base" to suit its new use, he said.
Before the auction, entities publicly expressing interest in the base were KVC Health Systems, which planned to use the property as a community college and life-skills training center for young adults aging out of the foster care system, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which eyed the base as a possible temporary shelter for unaccompanied migrant children.
Last year, the GSA offered to transfer the property to the West Virginia Division of Corrections for free for use as a women's prison, but Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin opted not to accept the gift, citing its remote location, the $19 million cost of converting the base into a correctional facility, and annual operating costs of $14 million to $16 million. By comparison, converting a National Guard facility in Mason County into a state correctional center for women would cost about $8 million and produce annual operating costs of about $3.9 million.
Having a for-profit entity use the base would generate much more in property taxes for the county, but a nonprofit owner would boost the economy by generating jobs and buying from local vendors, according to McConnell.
"In either case, it would be good for the county," he said. "It's been my hope all along that the base would not sit idle and that there would be a positive outcome for the county."
In 1955, Sugar Grove was chosen as the site for a huge parabolic dish antenna for advanced communications research, part of which involved bouncing radio signals off the surface of the moon. While the planned 600-meter antenna was never completed, a 60-foot prototype did go into operation at the site, which, in 1963, became Naval Radio Station Sugar Grove, a receiving station for Atlantic Fleet communications with the Washington, D.C., area.
The base's communications role increased, thanks, in part, to its remote location and presence within the National Radio Quiet Zone, a sparsely populated 100-square-mile area in Pendleton and Pocahontas counties kept relatively free of electromagnetic interference.
New antennas were added, along with a two-story underground operations building. In 1992, the base became a Naval Security Group Operation, and its role focused on collecting electronic intelligence data.
The chief of naval operations ordered the base to close by Sept. 30, 2015, at the request of the installation's "resource sponsor," the National Security Agency. While the NSA opted to transfer all military positions at the base to other facilities, "the operational functions at the site will be absorbed by the NSA," according to an announcement from the CNO's staff.
The operational functions at Sugar Grove, which continue to be operated by the NSA, take place at a larger, more secure, facility located a short distance uphill from the Navy's support base, for which the auction was held. The support base, located along the South Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River, provided housing for up to 500 Navy personnel and their dependents in 80 single-family units, a 45,000-square-foot dormitory containing 53 two-person suites, eight cabins and two mobile homes.
The base also contains administrative offices, a clinic, guest suites, a restaurant, community center, gym, two-lane bowling alley, indoor basketball court, youth activity center, car wash, fire department and police station.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169, or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.