NoCo airport commission to consider lease that displaces 60 existing tenants

LOVELAND — Members of the Northern Colorado Regional Airport Commission will decide Thursday whether to recommend approval of a long-term lease to the airport’s fixed base operator, a lease that would eventually displace about 60 hangar or tie-down spaces at the airport.

The action comes as a result of an unsolicited bid by Fort Collins/Loveland jetCenter and would be an extension of the FBO’s existing and adjacent operation. The development that would result over multiple years would displace three rows of T-hangars, which typically are used by private, general-aviation operators. JetCenter’s redevelopment would benefit commercial operators such as businesses that have jets housed at the airport, which is owned by the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland.

The lease, as included in the packet of information available to the commission, would be for 25 years plus up to three, five-year extensions. The lease would include 175,752 square feet of airport property.

JetCenter proposes spending $25 million to $30 million at today’s prices to build jet hangars on the land. 

Numerous small plane owners and operators who have planes in the T-hangars that would be razed during the redevelopment process complained to the commission at its June meeting. 

James Hays, representing the FNL Pilots Association, said the reduction in T-hangars represents 20% of the available rental space for small operators, and hangars for private pilots are in low supply throughout the Front Range. There are currently 24 people on the waiting list for spots at the Northern Colorado airport.

Plane owners complained of little notice that this could be occurring. “Our aircraft will be displaced by this,” said Mike Fossey of the Civil Air Patrol, which is an organization that assists in aerial search and rescue operations.

Jesse Taylor, a T-hangar tenant, was more blunt: “I feel terrible that we are an aesthetic embarrassment to all the one percenters coming in.” The T-hangars in question were built between 1964 and 1977.

Airport operators said the proposed lease is within the airport’s master plan, even though the lease will generate at least $22,000 less revenue annually than what the airport currently collects from T-hangar rental.

Among the options cited in materials placed before the commission would be providing alternative space at the airport for either the jetCenter plans or the T-hangars. No cost estimates for alternatives were provided.

The lease, which requires commission approval and approval of the Fort Collins and Loveland city councils, is scheduled for about an hour of the commission’s meeting Thursday, which begins at 3:30 p.m.

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