Bulletin E-Edition:
Dan Rich, of Redmond, clears ground at Bend Municipal Airport on Tuesday to make way for the construction of 73 new hangars on the east side of the runway.
Peter Strong / The Bulletin
Work begins on 73 new hangars
Next up: new aviation industrial park, Epic Aircraft expansion
By Jeff McDonald / The Bulletin
Published: August 13. 2008 4:00AM PSTCrews have begun excavating a 23-acre parcel on the east side of Bend Municipal Airport to prepare the site for construction of about 73 hangars, said Kerry O’Neal, a partner in Aero Facilities LLC, the site’s developer.
The new hangars will target people flying a mix of general aviation and business aircraft, O’Neal said, adding that a slowdown in the overall economy has not diminished demand for the space.
“Larger-plane owners tend to fly above the fray of the economy,” he said. “I would have loved to get this started earlier. I do all sorts of development, and the airport is probably the only thing that hasn’t waned.”
The FAA gave the go-ahead last month for all of the airport’s expansion projects — which include the hangars, a 200,000-square-foot aviation industrial park on 24 acres and a 342,000-square-foot expansion by Epic Aircraft — following an environmental analysis.
After the $3 million excavation project, hangar construction will begin in October, O’Neal said.
Buyers will lease the land from the city but own the hangars. Sales prices are expected to be finalized by next week, but the hangars are expected to generate $23 million to $25 million in sales after they’re all sold, O’Neal said.
“We’re very lucky because we still have people who can afford to fly and want to be in Bend,” said Susan Palmeri, airport manager. “We are luckier than a lot of areas where aircraft operations have dropped significantly.”
Bend’s airport contributes nearly $580 million to Central Oregon’s economy each year, according to Palmeri.
But that number is expected to climb with a large expansion planned at Epic, including hiring hundreds more employees, as well as a boost in production at the Cessna Aircraft Co. plant.
“When we went to the FAA, they required the environmental analysis for hangar and Epic Aircraft’s expansion,” Palmeri said. “We’ve been waiting two years or more to begin construction.”
The changes at the airport are needed to accommodate a pent-up demand for space, said Brandon Wilcox, a partner in Professional Air, which provides the airport’s fixed-base operation services such as fueling and maintenance.
Wilcox also is a partner in Aero Facilities.
“We’ve had no serious hangar development for a number of years,” Wilcox said. “There’s been nothing of this scale for as long as I can remember.”
There are about 100 hangars at the airport and all are occupied, he said.
Expansion means more planes demanding fuel and maintenance services for Professional Air, said Wilcox, who estimated the new hangars would take between two to three years to build out based on current demand.
The airport industrial park could include a new 7,200-square-foot facility for fixed-base operators and a 20,000-square-foot Cessna Jet Service Center maintenance facility, according to the FAA’s environmental assessment.
Plans also are in the works to extend the runway to 7,000 feet and build a new tower, Wilcox said.
“Getting a tower is very important to us,” he said. “For just having one runway, we’re very busy. We could bring a lot of additional traffic right into Bend.”
The project also got a boost from a state grant that improved a failing intersection at Butler Market Road and the Powell Butte Highway, said Clark Jackson, business development manager for the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department, based in Bend.
“The transportation component had to occur before any expansion could happen on the east side of the airport,” Jackson said. “The commercial and industrial development phase of the project will create jobs.”
The first phase of the expansion will include a mix of hangars, including four T-hangar buildings which can accommodate eight individual hangars. Each hangar would hold one plane, O’Neal said. Other hangar sizes include 100-foot-by-100-foot hangars, which could hold several small planes or one large plane, he said.
Jeff McDonald can be reached at 541-383-0323 or at jmcdonald@bendbulletin.com.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members. Sign up today!
blog comments powered by Disqus
