Economy & Economic Development  November 12, 2004

Pilots consider Wellington for airport option

WELLINGTON – A group of local pilots is looking north for a possible replacement for the Downtown Fort Collins Airport.
“We’ve talked with Wellington, and they’re interested,´ said Steve Vessey, an agent with Farmers Insurance Group in Fort Collins and minority shareholder in the Fort Collins Downtown Airport. “We have to do something if this airport closes.”
Vessey is a member of a group interested in keeping the aviation community thriving in the area. He has ties to the Fort Collins Downtown Airport that go back to childhood. His father, Don Vessey, was one of the original founders of the airport. The junior Vessey was one of the airport’s first flight students in 1966. His mother learned to fly there, as did his children.
The airport is facing closure and redevelopment after a Denver-based developer acquired a purchase option on the ground from Clair McMillan, majority owner of the airport.
Rumors circulating among the aviation community surrounding the airport suggest that the development plans will fall through. Several aviators said they heard the developer lacks financial backing. Others said the land is not right for the plans.
“It’s a good piece of property for an airport and nothing else,” Vessey said. He referred to the drainage issues caused by the high water table and the physical shape of the parcel – long and narrow.
Lloyd Goff acquired the option to the 102-acre property over the summer. Including his options on adjacent ground, he has rights to buy about 150 acres. He’s proposed a mixed-use residential and commercial project tentatively called Airpark Village.
“(The developer) has got a lot of hurdles to go over,´ said Jim Crisman, owner of Poudre Aviation Inc. According to Crisman, many business owners around the airport are doubtful of the redevelopment. He already investigated other options for his aircraft maintenance, sales and services business. The Greeley-Weld County and Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal airports, he said, do not have the capacity to support relocation of all of the airport-dependant businesses.
McMillan, majority owner of the airport, said he doesn’t know, nor has he considered, what would happen if the development of the airport doesn’t come to fruition.
“If the sun doesn’t come up tomorrow, what would I do?” he said. “There’s nothing that has changed.”
He said if, for some reason, the airport is not redeveloped that its future would be determined by the businesses that use it.
“It would have to be financially supported by the aviation-oriented businesses that benefit (from it),” he said.
McMillan said he has not had a conversation with a “credible person” regarding the purchase of the airport by those with an interest in keeping it open.
“It was never intended to be a profit maker,” Vessey said.
When his father gave him the airport stock shares, he told him to never expect to make money from it.
Instead, Vessey said the airport is more of a service to the community, a service which he does not want to see stopped. Consequently, Vessey, Mike Jones, of Northern Engineering, and others have decided to pursue an airport to the north.
“It’s something we’re entertaining,´ said Larry Noel, mayor of Wellington, of the possibility of an airport.
Noel said the group met with the town nearly two months ago and that the discussions are very preliminary. A representative from the Colorado Department of Transportation was present at the meeting as well.
According to Noel, if an airport were built it would be a municipal airport and would be located north of town.
“Wellington has a number of open areas for this sort of thing,´ said Doug Andersen, chairman of the Wellington Economic Development Association. Andersen said the economic impact of an airport on Wellington would depend on the size of the operation.
A 2003 report from the Colorado Department of Transportation determined the economic impact of Colorado airports. The Fort Collins Downtown Airport was shown to keep 240 people employed for a combined wage total of about $4 million. It also showed that the airport generated $10.7 million in economic activity.
If Wellington gets an airport, it will have to share the skies. The Colorado Soaring Association owns the Owl Canyon Gliderport, located north of Wellington off of exit 281.
The Owl Canyon Gliderport was built in the 1970s and was bought by the CSA in 1985. The 60-member group owns and operates the port for its private use. Fred Whiteley, CSA member and founder of GreeleyNet, said he wasn’t aware of the interest in an airport for Wellington.
“We wouldn’t be interested in developing our airport for public use,” he said.
Whiteley said he knew of a stretch of land along Interstate Highway 25 for sale that might be suitable for an airport, but he said airplanes approaching and taking off would interfere with the gliderport’s operations.
This is an issue the Federal Aviation Administration will review. Vessey said the FAA has been contacted to do an investigation of the area. This assessment can take up to five years.

WELLINGTON – A group of local pilots is looking north for a possible replacement for the Downtown Fort Collins Airport.
“We’ve talked with Wellington, and they’re interested,´ said Steve Vessey, an agent with Farmers Insurance Group in Fort Collins and minority shareholder in the Fort Collins Downtown Airport. “We have to do something if this airport closes.”
Vessey is a member of a group interested in keeping the aviation community thriving in the area. He has ties to the Fort Collins Downtown Airport that go back to childhood. His father, Don Vessey, was one of the original founders…

Christopher Wood
Christopher Wood is editor and publisher of BizWest, a regional business journal covering Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties. Wood co-founded the Northern Colorado Business Report in 1995 and served as publisher of the Boulder County Business Report until the two publications were merged to form BizWest in 2014. From 1990 to 1995, Wood served as reporter and managing editor of the Denver Business Journal. He is a Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder. He has won numerous awards from the Colorado Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Alliance of Area Business Publishers.
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