Discovery Air developers add 110,00 square feet in lease for future NoCo Airport park

LOVELAND — An amended proposal from the developers of the Discovery Air business park at Northern Colorado Regional Airport is requesting to increase the amount of land under contract by more than 110,000 square feet.

NCRA executive director Jason Licon said the lease amendments were expected from the time that developer BA Group LLC first signed a 50-year lease on the property in January 2019 and weren’t directly caused by the financial chaos created by the pandemic.

BA had a two-year period for due-diligence and market research purposes and has now proposed a new lease agreement that would further stagger the lease increases baked into the original lease.

“There’s some give-and-take to make sure that it was a win-win for both sides,” Licon said.

The original lease called for a 300% increase in 2021 and a 167% increase on top of that in 2029. Under the new proposal, the lease increases would be split up under four phases of development and kick in between 2021 and 2038 depending on when the buildings in each phase are certified to be occupied.

Rents for the area would also be tied to inflation and would increase in the fourth year of the lease rather than the originally-agreed-upon 12th year.

If inflation stays around 2% per year, the airport projects that BA would save 18% on its rent payments through the first 15 years under the new lease structure but ultimately pay 28% more over the life of the 50-year lease.

The new lease proposal also earmarks 253,595 square feet of new acreage on the east side of the park that could be developed as pad sites if BA wishes to do so.

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