The KI Sawyer US Air Force Base, a Marquette County, Michigan facility that has been defunct since 1995, will be auctioned off August 10 via sealed bid. It was built as a base after the Korean War.
It was intended to assist the nearby Calumet Advanced Radar Station in intercepting detected threats. According to the portal of Maas Companies Inc, which is responsible for marketing the real estate, it will be auctioned off as a promising object for commercial aviation.
The auction includes 14 properties including a hospital, several bedrooms, a bar and restaurant, a former post office, a cinema and various buildable lots. The portal warns that the properties are being sold “as is, where they are” and that some of them have environmental problems and “may contain asbestos or lead paint”.
The company states that a center was built at Sawyer in 1959 to provide early warning of a Soviet nuclear attack. The county’s airport, Sawyer International, which now occupies part of the base and operates scheduled flights, was completed in 1945, while the US government began construction of the base facilities in 1955.
“We’re excited to see how the next chapter unfolds for this property,” Allison Guyton, Maas Companies’ chief operating officer, told the New York Post on Friday.
In addition to boasting rights of owning an entire military base, bidders may also be attracted by the fact that the “natural geography and access to deep sea, air and rail ports” make the Upper Peninsula a suitable location for many companies. said Guyton.