The 693,234-sf office building on 100 acres was first put on the market in 1999, but "We have officially taken the Deer Creek facility off the market," says Evan McCollum, a spokesman for the aerospace giant. The company plans to consolidate employees from other facilities into the Deer Creek facility.

"We plan to have people in there for the foreseeable future," McCollum says. He says the move was mainly strategic, reflecting the consolidation of people from other facilities into Deer Creek. The company is, of course, hopeful that the winning of additional contracts will bring the need for hiring more people. One big potential contract is NASA's Orbital Space Plane, expected to be awarded next year.

Initially, the facility was being listed by Grubb & Ellis and the asking price was $62 million. But offers were coming in at much lower costs. A Christian college came close to buying it last year, but ran into opposition from neighbors and the deal collapsed. And Echostar, the Denver-area based satellite dish giant, looked at it, but passed. Instead, Echostar bought the former Merrill Lynch office campus in the Meridian International Office Park in Douglas County, which is not as isolated as the Deer Creek facility.