Real Estate & Construction  September 29, 2006

Windsor’s Lind presses airport renewal

LOVELAND – Closing on a $9.3 million, 106-acre land purchase just southeast of Fort Collins-Loveland Airport, Windsor developer Martin Lind is pursuing a plan that would reshape the airport’s main entrance and give it a new name.

Rocky Mountain Regional Airport, as Lind suggests the airport be renamed, would have a fly-in, fly-out corporate campus on its southern doorstep under the plan, close to the Interstate 25/Crossroads Boulevard hub that is becoming one of the region’s hottest commercial centers.

The airport’s manager and the city managers of Fort Collins and Loveland are, at first blush, supportive of Lind’s plan.

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“His proposal fits in very well with other things we’ve talked about with the master plan,” Loveland City Manager Don Williams said. “I know there’s more than one person who is hoping for this kind of development to happen there.”

Airport Manager Dave Gordon said he and airport users likely would welcome Lind’s efforts to upgrade its proposed southern gateway.

“I think Martin’s vision for that property can really enhance the airport,” Gordon said. “It gives us a better entrance, better monument signing. That’s a critical ingredient, and something that’s been lacking in the past. It’s something I know we would like to see.”

Lind, a frequent business traveler in and out of Fort Collins-Loveland airport aboard his private plane, has been a strong advocate for upgrades at the airport, and for raising its profile as an important economic development tool for Northern Colorado.

He said his development plan, along with millions of dollars in federal money that will flow to the airport in the next several years, would secure its position among the most important general aviation and commercial airports in Colorado. Lind says it can become a smaller likeness of Centennial Airport in south metro Denver and Jefferson County Airport northwest of Denver.

Diamond in the rough

“This airport is nothing to the region right now but a little lump of coal,” Lind said. “But I think it could be polished into a diamond. We want to make it a center for bigger, regional users.”

A name change, according to Lind, would help make the flight center a resource for all of Northern Colorado, not just the province of owners Loveland and Fort Collins.

While civic officials in the two cities that jointly own the airport say they are generally supportive of Lind’s development plans, they also say renaming the airport is a step that would require action by two city councils.

“I’m very excited that Martin is willing to invest in that area in this way,” Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry said. “I think this proposal looks like an opportunity for the airport to show it’s a great regional economic tool. … As for the name change, I would say it’s a concept, a proposal, and we haven’t had any conversations about it yet.”

Lind outlined his plan during a mid-September meeting of the Airport Steering Committee, a group made up of city managers and transportation officials from Fort Collins and Loveland, and airport manager Gordon.

During the 15-minute presentation, Lind showed the group a proposed new entrance for the airport, a stone monument topped by a model of a business jet on a pedestal bearing the greeting, “Welcome to Rocky Mountain Regional Airport.”

The entry feature would be located just north of the Crossroads Boulevard intersection with Rocky Mountain Avenue, where a huge new roundabout feeds traffic through the fast-growing commercial zone.

“I’m not particularly married to the name we have now,” Williams said. “When Martin referred to Rocky Mountain Regional Airport in his presentation, I don’t think anyone raised any particular objection to that.”

The inclusion of the twin-engine business jet in the entry feature is not merely symbolic, but reflects a trend that will reshape the airport’s use in coming years, according to projections contained in the airport’s master plan.

Corporate jet boom

Business-jet travel in and out of the airport, and the number of corporate jets based there, will more than triple by 2020, according to the plan.

One reason is the development of smaller, lighter and cheaper business jets. New Mexico-based Eclipse Aircraft Inc., for example, is flooded with orders for its Eclipse 500 business jet, a $1.3 million airplane that is something like a Lincoln Navigator with two jet engines and wings.

“That seems to be the next big, new thing in aviation,” Gordon said. “Those very light, relatively inexpensive jets. Those aircraft have the ability to get in and out of airports this size very easily, and that’s going to open up a lot of air traffic, from a corporate standpoint.”

The airport has become the beneficiary of the reinstatement of commercial air service, with Allegiant Airlines’ wildly successful Las Vegas flight schedule resulting in a steady flow of federal money tied to passenger boarding numbers.

The Federal Aviation Administration sent $1 million the airport’s way last year, based on Allegiant’s boardings, but that’s the tip of a larger iceberg. More that $7.5 million in FAA “discretionary” funds, geared for airport improvements approved under the master plan adopted earlier this year, will flow to the airport through 2008.

Lind’s plan would take full advantage of the runway reconstruction, lighting and other improvements with what’s called a “through-the-fence” agreement he’ll seek with the airport to tie his property to the south end of the runway.

The conceptual sketch locates about a dozen buildings in a corporate cluster, all served by a new taxiway that links to the runway.

Such agreements are already in place for corporate fliers to the north of Lind’s proposed project, and Gordon said he could see no reason why an arrangement with Lind couldn’t be negotiated.

Economic boon

“We’ll have to duplicate that concept that we already have in place with Martin’s idea,” Gordon said. “A lot of airports won’t even touch that issue, but we certainly haven’t shut the door on that, because it has such great potential to generate economic development.”

Lind’s suggestion that his development might include charter services, aircraft service businesses or other enterprises directly tied to flight operations might have a tougher reception from Gordon and other airport officials.

“I don’t see the use for this as being for aeronautical businesses that are already on the airport – people who sell fuel, hangar aircraft, and offer instruction,” Gordon said. “Martin might be thinking of charter businesses and the like. But in my opinion, we should not allow businesses like that to operate off-airport.”

Nonetheless, Gordon said he would support and welcome a plan that would remake the southern end of the airport, and provide it with a new gateway and corporate center.

“When we have people like Donald Trump fly in on his jet, as happened last year, you want the place to look a little nicer,” Gordon said. “I think everyone would like to see that.”

LOVELAND – Closing on a $9.3 million, 106-acre land purchase just southeast of Fort Collins-Loveland Airport, Windsor developer Martin Lind is pursuing a plan that would reshape the airport’s main entrance and give it a new name.

Rocky Mountain Regional Airport, as Lind suggests the airport be renamed, would have a fly-in, fly-out corporate campus on its southern doorstep under the plan, close to the Interstate 25/Crossroads Boulevard hub that is becoming one of the region’s hottest commercial centers.

The airport’s manager and the city managers of Fort Collins and Loveland are, at first blush, supportive of Lind’s plan.

“His proposal fits in…

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