According to a report in the online news source Coloradoan.com, hangar tenants at Northern Colorado Regional Airport (KFNL) have at least a month’s grace before their aging city-owned T-hangars are to be decommissioned and then torn down. After a presentation by hangar tenant Rick Turley, the airport commissioners voted last week to pause lease terminations on the A-, B- and C-building hangars until more thorough structural analysis can be completed. The four buildings (the “C-building” is made up of two structures) include 57 hangar units covering some 64,500 square feet.
An earlier engineering report said the four hangar buildings, ranging in age from 45 to 58 years old, on the airport’s west side were irreparable and could not be refurbished robustly enough to satisfy current building codes. Airport commission chair Don Overcash said in a statement, “The decline of the condition of the buildings has reached the risk level that is no longer able for the cities [Loveland and Fort Collins, which jointly own the airport] to maintain insurance coverage. The airport and cities are faced with a difficult decision … the decision is made in the best interest of the safety of airport users and is not being taken lightly.”
Turley said he had walked through the buildings with a structural engineer who indicated they could be repaired and made safe relatively easily. He expressed appreciation for the reprieve in the commission’s ruling, pending further engineering data. “I’m happy they took the feedback seriously,” he said, “and seem willing to work with us. I appreciate the extra 30 days. I wish it was six months, but we’ll take what we can get.” He added that he was willing to pay for an engineer to perform a comprehensive structural analysis of the buildings. The commissioners agreed to pause the eviction process until more data could be presented at the next meeting, scheduled for April 20.
There is so much more to this story. I am a pilot who operates out of FNL. The airport wants to tear down these hangers to replace them with a larger FBO facility. Although the airport has said they will build replacement hangers elsewhere at the airport, construction on those hangers has not begun. Tearing down these hangers would displace the aircraft stored there, and there are no other options at FNL or other airports in the region to help those aircraft owners.
This is why it’s crucial to have an ordinary pilot/tenent on your Airport Commission/Board/Authority, or at least to attend their usually excruciatingly boring meetings. Many (most) of their decisions are made by private phone/txt collusion, and the item on the meeting agenda is simply the point at which it is cast in stone. Seen it ‘way too many times.
When I hear these stories I have to wonder about the politics going on. Are there a bunch of goobers turning the place into a mess every weekend? Are there regular users someone powerful wants out of the way? Are there personalities involved? Are the proceeds of jet fuel sales becoming the reason for the airport in the minds of the politicians? Are they eliminating local users on the way to eliminating the airport?
Seems there are different stories every time. What I cannot imagine is how hangar rentals are not a good deal for a municipality who isn’t paying property taxes.
Someone built the hangars 50 to 60 years ago. The owner kept the hangar maintenance in repair because their plane was inside.
Several years later, per the contract, the city took over the hangars and started charging rent to the tenets, some who actually built the hangar.
The city enjoyed the new revenue but failed to keep up on the maintenance of the hangars.
So now because of the city’s negligence, the airplane owners suffer.
A self fulfilling prophecy.
New hangars are way to expensive to build and get any return o the investment.
No RoI for hangars? Really?
I suppose that might be true if the government uses their normal building practices, but I still doubt it. Or, they could simply do the same game again with a long term lease and let people build their own.
Seems to me, a lot of retired people and businesses built hangars with rental space at one of our local airports. There’s a LOT of retired pilots these days.