The USAF held a ground breaking ceremony for the new strategic base on 29 January 1954, and construction began immediately.

[2] During the 1991 Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRACC) deliberations, PAFB wound up being pitted against Loring AFB in Limestone, Maine.

Rallies were held and a local leadership group, dubbed Team Plattsburgh, was put together to save the base.

[7] 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.

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.

[citation needed] 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 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 World War II.

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.

[16] Additional potential risk to human health exists due to soil vapor intrusion (SVI) into buildings by VOCs.

However, this contaminant pathway has been extensively studied across the entire base, mainly in association with the FT-002 / Industrial Area Groundwater OU.

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) systems were installed at 3 buildings in the industrial area of the base where concentrations of VOCs warranted mitigation and/or remediation.

Any sampling and risk evaluations conducted would be reviewed by the Air Force and regulatory agencies, and continued monitoring or mitigation, as necessary, would be required.