Major aviation project breaks ground at NoCo airport

LOVELAND — Business Aviation Group LLC, under contract with Water Valley Development Co., has broken ground on a major hangar and office facility on the south end of the Northern Colorado Regional Airport. The first phase of that project will be complete in fall 2021, said Dave Vaughan, a partner and co-founder of BA Group.

When done, it will include four hangars, the first of which will be the largest at the airport with 29,494 square feet for airplane storage and 8,213 square feet of office space.

The project, called Discovery Air, will include a new fixed-base-operator terminal and will span 29.5 acres.

BA said two customers are under contract for some of the space and others are considering it. Of the two, one is already on the airport grounds, and the other has operations in the area, Vaughan said. Both will relocate operations to Discovery Air and not maintain two locations, he said.

Martin Lind, CEO of Water Valley and developer of Discovery Air, said he was pleased with the start of the project. “We have long felt and been adamant that this airport is the most important public asset in Northern Colorado, and we couldn’t be more excited to see this asset come to life with this incredible project of Discovery Air,” Lind said in a written statement.

He told BizWest that the project provides “a Class A campus, not just a hangar. It takes advantage of ridiculously beautiful views, and it fills a missing niche in the aviation market.”

Lind said that eventually a new, primary entrance to the airport will be built at the southern end of the property.

Lind also is developing the Brands at the Ranch, a tourism-based project adjacent to the Ranch events complex on the east side of Interstate 25. One part of that project involves a gondola that would cross the interstate with its west terminus in or near the Discovery Air project. 

“I’m 100% convinced that that’s [the gondola] a magnificent project for the region,” he said.

Lind said that the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed the county’s planning for the Ranch project but soon he will be in a position to see whether the private sector will step up to develop the entertainment features he envisions for the Brands. “I’m very bullish on that project,” he said.

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