What was once a working airfield and base for the Air Force is now a sprawling community of over 1,000 homes in one of the most popular communities of Marin. Decommissioned by the military in 1974, the 408-acre Hamilton Field site in southern Novato sits comfortably between the bay and Ignacio, just east of highway 101 at the Hamilton exit in south Novato.  

Hamilton was known first as the Marin County Air Field, then the Marin Airfield, the Marin Meadows Air Field, and as the Army Air Base at Marin Meadows, until it finally became “The Air Corps Station at San Rafael". It was named Hamilton Field on July 12, 1932, in honor of pilot Lloyd Andrew Hamilton from Marin County, who was killed in World War I.

After a twenty year struggle, the city of Novato acquired the old military airstrip and its 1400 housing units in 1998 for an undisclosed sum. Work began almost immediately in March of that year and continues today with the addition of new phases of housing and commercial development.

Throughout the development and planning process, the city strove for a “small town feel”, choosing to renovate and restore a set of 1930s Spanish-style buildings for a town center where residents learn to “live, work, play, belong” and a tiny movie theater that became the centerpiece of the New Hamilton logo.

The numerous airplane hangars have been restored into commercial space with the famous retailer Smith & Hawken signing on as the first tenants. I remember going to Hamilton Field as a kid and seeing any number of Air Shows that were held there. It’s fascinating to see the vast hangar buildings turned into high tech, class A office space.  

In addition to the homes and office buildings, there are 70 acres of parks and 50 acres for community facilities, including a library, gymnasium, self-storage, baseball and soccer fields, basketball and tennis courts, a skate park and an outdoor amphitheatre where they show movies outside for free during the summer.

Since the first housing units were introduced in 1999, the real estate activity at Hamilton has been fast and furious. The average appreciation of homes is far above that of the rest of the county with the average days on market also far less. In short, it continues to be one of the most popular areas with prices that appear cheap by Marin standards for what we call “new construction”, or anything built within the last ten years.

There are a variety of neighborhoods, each with their own small town feel, complete with individual street signs and lampposts. These are Bayside, Hamilton Meadows, Hamilton Park, Southgate, Traditions, Inspirations, Sunny Cove and Newport. I have many clients who live up in Hamilton, most of whom wouldn’t live anywhere else. If you are interested, you may drive through any of Hamilton’s communities, as they are all open to the public. Budget some extra time to explore the outskirts of the acreage, where hiking and biking trails weave throughout these excellent neighborhoods. 

I hope you have enjoyed my tour of Hamilton. For any further information, please do not hesitate to email or call me. I'll be happy to try and help in anyway I can.

Ted

Birkenstock plans short trip to Hamilton.  Birkenstock Distribution USA, the Marin-based shoe company, is moving from its distinctive headquarters in northern Novato to Hamilton Landing in southern Novato. The company, which has been based in Marin since 1971, has signed a lease for 15,000 square feet in a renovated airport hangar, said Michael Barker of Barker Pacific Group, the developer of Hamilton Landing.

The shoe company signed with Hamilton because it has more space than it needs at its current site, a 157,000-square-foot, 92-acre campus near Mount Burdell.  Over the past 18 months, the company has been streamlining its operations, outsourcing its shipping and receiving operations to Kentucky and laying off about 50 workers over that period.

Gene Kunde, the company's chief executive, said most of Birkenstock's retail customers are on the East Coast, so it was inefficient to have the shoes shipped from manufacturing headquarters in all the way to California before being distributed to East Coast destinations.  The company still has 67 employees in Marin, and they will start moving to Hamilton Landing on Feb. 9.  "We've got more space than we need at our existing facility," Kunde said. "It's costing us a lot more money than we really need to spend."  The lease term is five years. Terms were not disclosed, but space in Hamilton Landing rents for about $2.50 per square foot.

No new tenant has been found for the northern Novato building, noteworthy for its pointed white roof. The building was occupied by the McGraw-Hill publishing company until Birkenstock moved in 15 years ago. Birkenstock, based in , has been making shoes since 1774. Birkenstock was founded in 1966 by Margot Fraser of Santa Cruz, who admired the shoes and asked to import and sell them from her home.

Fraser, who now lives in Terra Linda, moved the company to San Rafael in 1971. In 1982, the company moved to a 31,000-square-foot space in Bel Marin Keys. The McGraw-Hill campus became available in 1992.  The Birkenstock deal is the latest coup for Hamilton Landing, which has leased 111,000 square feet of space in the past few months, said Michael Barker of the Barker Pacific Group, Hamilton Landing's developer. "Birkenstock is a mainstay in the community," Barker said. "It speaks to the image of Hamilton."  Ninety-six percent of the renovated space at the former military base is now occupied. Other companies that have leased space there recently include Oracle, Sony ImageWorks and Take Two Interactive.  Thanks to Gary Klien (Marin IJ) for writing this article.

Walt Disney Studios is branching out with a 3-D computer animation complex at Hamilton early next year as redevelopment of the former Air Force base into a residential and commercial hub continues.

Disney's ImageMovers Digital studio has outgrown a San Rafael site and hopes to set up shop for 180 employees in 90,000 square feet of office space in Hangars 7 and 9 by Christmas, an ImageMovers executive said.

"We're growing pretty fast," said Doug Chiang, ImageMovers Digital executive vice president. "We're pretty excited about Hamilton because of the community there and the base's historical significance.

"We've always been attracted to that." Chiang said the company has special plans for the landmark air control tower in Hangar 7, but he declined to elaborate.

Disney Studios will start interior construction as early as May or June, said Richard Johnson, executive vice president of finance for Hamilton developer Barker Pacific Group.

Five other hangars - with tenants including Sony Imageworks, Visual Concepts Entertainment, Smith & Hawken and Birkenstock Distribution USA - have been renovated by Barker Pacific Group. All seven hangars provide more than 450,000 square feet of office space on the 22-acre site for approximately 850 employees, officials said.  "We have a tremendous mix of tenants, and what we've done has been very well received, especially by the creative types," Johnson said.

Terms of the deal with ImageMovers Digital were not disclosed. "They've made a substantial economic investment at this location," Johnson said. "We won't have the actors and actresses up here, but I guess we'll see how they put the rest of the movie together."

More than 175 employees for ImageMovers Digital work at a studio at 1 Thorndale Drive in San Rafael. The studio uses "performance capture" filmmaking techniques in which an actor's movements and gestures are transferred to the digital realm. The result: computer-animated characters.

ImageMovers Digital is working on the Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol," starring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge. The movie is an adaptation that will feature 3-D stereoscopic animation and is planned for release later this year.

Oscar-winning director Robert Zemeckis was brought on board to work with ImageMovers Digital. He wrote the screenplay and will direct "A Christmas Carol," which is in production at the San Rafael studio. Zemeckis and Chiang joined forces on other ImageMovers Digital films, including "The Polar Express," featuring the voice of Tom Hanks in a number of roles. The studio recently released "Beowulf."

The new digs at Hamilton will allow for company growth, up to 300 employees, and help with the development of other new filmmaking techniques, said Chiang, who also worked with Zemeckis on "Forrest Gump."

Having cutting-edge filmmakers working alongside a variety of biotech and software companies at Hamilton is a great start for the neighborhood, city officials say, noting the area's redevelopment plan follows years of community debate.

"We envisioned those hangars as state-of-the-art places for people to work, especially creative folks," Novato Mayor Pat Eklund said. "We've been fortunate to have saved the buildings and put them into effective use today.

"Getting Disney here was a dream come true."

"With all the historic buildings we've saved, combined with all residential, we're in essence completing the master plan developed in the 1990s.  It took a lot of people to put this together."

Hamilton Field was decommissioned in 1974. Various development plans were proposed, prompting a decade of controversy, political upheaval and an alphabet soup of ballot proposals ranging from a commercial airport to a "solar village." None came to fruition.

Airport use of the old base was ultimately rejected, the federal land was transferred to the city and, in 1998, the hangar sites were purchased by Barker Pacific. Five hangars are owned by Hamilton Marin LLC, a joint venture of Prudential Real Estate investors and Barker Pacific. Barker Pacific director Michael Barker called the Hamilton hangar project "a $150 million investment."

"What we have here now is the vision of Michael Barker and his team," Johnson said. "These hangars could have been torn down. But I think keeping the character of the base, renovating the hangars proved to be a good decision."

Each hangar has about 60,000 square feet of space and feature two stories. Telecommunications and heating and cooling systems are housed under raised flooring, making air conditioning more efficient. The floor panels can be popped out and reconfigured to accommodate changing office needs.

Development of the community, called Hamilton Landing, includes more than 1,000 single-family homes and includes affordable housing. In addition to the housing, the project features more than 70 acres of parks and open space and 50 acres of community facilities, including a library, art center, theater and sports fields.

In addition, the West Coast's largest wetlands restoration project is under way at Hamilton. The $200 million, eight-year project is funded by state, federal and local money. It will use 7 million cubic yards of dredge sludge from the Port of Oakland estuary to bury the old runway complex and restore marshland at Hamilton. The dredge material is enough to cover 700 football fields three feet deep.

Beyond the marshland restoration tract, more than 30 high-tech, biotech, entertainment and retail companies and nonprofits have moved into Hamilton, soon to include Disney's digital team.

Novato Realtor Mike DiGiorgio, a former mayor, said the vibrant community blooming at Hamilton has been a long time coming.  "I don't think we've lost any aviation or architectural heritage, and the diversity of the companies ... how great is that?" he said.

"I think it's a great place to live, work and play."

Thanks to Marin IJ for this article.