Future Leasing Opportunities at Fort Cronkhite

 

NPS

Background

Despite being only a 20-minute drive from San Francisco, Fort Cronkhite’s location in the Marin Headlands provides visitors with the opportunity to step into a relatively remote park area and experience many of the natural and cultural resources GGNRA has to offer. Fort Cronkhite was built in 1941 as a Coast Artillery Corps site and once housed hundreds of soldiers assigned to protect the San Francsico Bay against enemy attack. Originally, Fort Cronkhite’s buildings provided barracks, mess halls, and supply buildings to serve the soldiers stationed there.

Today, Fort Cronkhite is on the National Register of Historic Places and its buildings have been repurposed for a variety of modern uses to serve GGNRA operations and Park Partners. The surrounding park areas are extremely popular with cyclists, hikers, and surfers who visit Rodeo Beach and the surrounding trails. Historic batteries and iconic views of the Golden Gate Bridge also make the area surrounding Fort Cronkhite popular with locals and visitors alike.

 

Buildings Considered for Leasing at Fort Cronkhite

GGNRA is currently exploring leasing opportunities for four buildings at Fort Cronkhite: Building 1049, Building 1050, Building 1055, and Building 1056. You can find information about the location of the buildings, their floor plans, and some key details as attachments on Sam.gov. The combined floor area of the four buildings is 13,284 square feet, and each building has incredible views of Rodeo Beach, Rodeo Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean.

All four buildings are historic property and therefore will require compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation, National Historic Preservation Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. Adaptive reuse of these buildings is required, meaning that the historic character and elements are preserved while meeting modern needs. All buildings are in a marine environment and require investment to address deferred maintenance and make potential capital improvements.

Leasing Industry Day

In February 2026, GGNRA hosted its first Leasing Industry Day for the Fort Cronkhite buildings. The event included a virtual information session and a tour of the four buildings in consideration for a future lease(s). This pre-solicitation event was open to the public and provided an opportunity for interested members of the community to learn about and provide feedback on a future leasing project at Fort Cronkhite.

The objectives of this two-part event were to 1) share information about a potential future leasing opportunity at Fort Cronkhite 2) discuss what the NPS leasing process looks like, and 3) collect questions and input from attendees that could help us develop a more attractive leasing opportunity.

The Industry Day accomplished these goals, and feedback received from attendees demonstrated that Fort Cronkhite presents a unique and interesting leasing opportunity. You can learn more about the event via the public posting on SAM.gov.

 

NPS

What Does the Leasing Process Look Like?

Before GGNRA can lease any buildings to a private, for-profit entity, the Park must solicit proposals from interested parties via a competitive process using a Request for Proposals (RFP). A typical RFP will outline specific requirements respondents must meet and evaluation criteria that the National Park Service will use to select the best proposal. RFPs typically include key information that will help respondents develop their proposals, including for example, facilities details, physical history reports, and utility information. A site visit is usually included as a part of this process.

GGNRA is not yet ready to solicit any proposals for these buildings but is working through steps internally to prepare for a future solicitation. To keep this process fair to all interested parties, we cannot answer many specific questions about potential uses and future scenarios that include these buildings. However, responses to Frequently Asked Questions have been provided in the section below. If you have questions that are not answered by this page, GGNRA still wants to hear them even if not all questions can be answered directly at this time. All questions help GGNRA prepare a better leasing solicitation in the future. Email us.

If you want to learn more about leasing with the National Park Service, check out the service-wide leasing webpage here.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How many buildings will be made available for lease? A. Currently four. It is possible that another building may be added to a future RFP, but that is not guaranteed.

Q. What if I am only interested in two of the buildings – would I still be able to respond to the RFP? A. While the RFP and draft lease are still in development, the Park is open to having multiple lessees occupying fewer than the four buildings that will be offered for lease.

Q. Will any parking be included in a future lease at this location? A. It is possible that a few parking spaces may be included in the leasehold. Fort Cronkhite has ample, free public parking available.

Q. Would I be allowed to sublease any of the leased space? A. While the RFP and lease are in development, the Park is open to sublessees so long as they meet the minimum requirements outlined in the future lease agreement.

Q. Does the Park have any preferred or required uses of the buildings? A. The Park plans to require food and beverage operations as the primary use for building 1049. The Park is open to a variety of other uses that are legal, do not result in the degradation of the purposes and values of the park area, and are appropriate in a park area, as required by the NPS’s leasing regulations.

Q. To what degree can these buildings be rebuilt and / or redesigned? A. All the buildings considered for this opportunity are historic and can be repurposed for new uses provided the historic character is preserved per the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Historic Preservation. Some features of these buildings are considered character defining – only minimal changes to these characteristics would be permitted. A Physical History Report outlining character-defining features would be shared as a part of a future leasing solicitation. Any proposed changes to the exterior of these buildings will likely require the involvement of the State Historic Preservation Office and will add significant time to the project. Changes to the interiors of the buildings may be more flexible than the exteriors. For example, originally some of the buildings had open floor plans that have since been divided into offices – these interior walls are not historic or character defining and can be altered or removed. All work on these buildings requires close consultation with the Park’s historical architect and project teams.

Q. Will the construction of new structures or additions be permitted? A. Likely, no. Building new permanent structures is not of interest to the Park. The addition of some temporary changes may be permitted pending their impact to the viewshed and compliance review.

Q. Who is responsible for addressing ongoing maintenance and capital improvements on these buildings? A. Leases will be structured as absolute net leases where lessees will assume responsibility for all maintenance, repairs, capital improvements and utilities.

Q. Will lessees be responsible for all deferred maintenance and capital improvements? A. Yes. 

Q. Is work on these buildings eligible for historic preservation tax credits? A. Generally, yes, and these credits have been used by NPS lessees in the past. The lessee will be responsible for applying for these tax credits, managing the process, and ensuring the proposed design meets the necessary standards. 

Q. What are the financial and experience requirements for a future lessee (selection criteria)? A. Offerors must respond to the selection criteria, including financial and experience requirements, of an RFP that comply with NPS leasing regulations in 36 CFR 18.8(e). An RFP will contain the criteria specific to the issued opportunity. You can learn more here.

Q. What will the lease term be? A. NPS leases must be as short as is financially feasible and can have a maximum term of 60 years.