"No holding pattern for Mesa's revamped Falcon Field"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Saturday, June 16, 2007

No holding pattern for Mesa's revamped Falcon Field
BY Art Thomason and JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic


Mesa's Falcon Field Airport for more than a year flew beneath the radar of
high-profile development at the city's largest airfield, Williams Gateway
Airport. 

While Williams captured top billing as a burgeoning reliever airport and
regional center for jobs, Falcon Field didn't circle the skies in a holding
pattern.

With little acclaim, the historic general aviation airport has been
undergoing a major overhaul and is taking on a different face and a
dramatically new way of doing business. It reconfigured its roads and
taxiways to increase security and expanded its aviation services through new
businesses. 

It also plans to add scores of hangars to alleviate a waiting list.

Still, the most remarkable change is a new business model designed to make
the city-owned facility more competitive and, eventually, wean it from tax
subsidies.

"We ran the numbers and looked at it from a financial perspective," said
Corinne Nystrom, airport manager. "In order for us to break even, we need to
run the airport like a business. It was probably in the city's best interest
to let the private sector take over."

Privatization as a prototype has ruffled a few feathers, including those of
pilots voicing concern that lease rates for corporately owned hangars are
likely to go through the ceiling. They also fear that the airport will start
catering to the corporate-jet crowd instead of the average, fly-for-fun
pilot.

"It's good that we're getting some business-aircraft hangars, but I don't
think people on the waiting list are going to be able to afford them," said
Jim Timm, executive director of the Arizona Pilots Association and a
frequent Falcon Field flier. "Falcon Field is a very social airport. People
get together, go from one hangar to another to visit and even hold weekend
hangar parties."

Falcon Field is a municipal airport limited primarily to general aviation,
and its mission is far different from the broad range of objectives for
Williams Gateway, which is owned and operated by an authority made up of
Mesa, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Phoenix and the Gila River Indian Community. 

Williams Gateway, for example, is examining plans for remodeling the
passenger terminal as it woos commercial airline service, while Falcon Field
builds space to store more small aircraft and stays put with a
living-room-size terminal in a building that houses the airport's
administrative offices.

Nystrom said the city made the decision that it was going to allow the
private sector to build and lease hangars. "And they can charge whatever
they want to charge," she said.

The airport built most of the 413 hangars and leases them at rates
comparable to those charged at other city-owned airports in the Valley.

"Realistically, the way this market generally works is that once word gets
out that hangars are being built at Falcon Field, you have a lot of people
suddenly showing an interest in basing their aircraft at Falcon Field,"
Nystrom said.

Fee hikes approved by the City Council last week for the rental of
city-owned tie-downs, T-hangars and storage facilities will go into effect
on Aug. 1. Nystrom said all fees go up 3.2 percent except those for storage
facilities, which increase by 8 percent. 

Privately owned hangars will not be affected. They are under the airport's
new business plan in which land is leased to private operators for building
and leasing hangars. Since July 1, it has generated more than $600,000 in
additional revenue, Nystrom said.

The beauty of the deal, she said, is that the city doesn't have to build and
maintain the hangars.

New hangars and some businesses will occupy much of the remaining open space
at the airport, she said. Grading began recently for construction of hangars
that look like office buildings along the airport's McKellips Road frontage.

The Falcon 7 Development is designed to enhance curb appeal and create a
business profile at the airport's front door as it rises in the shadow of a
water tower, an emblem of Mesa's grip on its past.

The project also calls for 70 new hangars, including a mix of box hangars
and T-hangars. Some will have offices attached.

"There's a huge demand. We have about 300 people on our waiting list to get
into some type of a storage unit, whether it's a hangar or a covered shade
hangar," Nystrom said. "This is just one of those developments that's going
to try to start to accommodate that demand."

At the northwestern corner of the airport, four land leases were signed in
the past year, and airport officials are finalizing negotiations on a fifth
for construction of hangars and a helicopter business, she said.

The airport also is the fulcrum of a business district made up of more than
1,000 acres of industrial-zoned land that city officials refer to as the
employment center for north Mesa. The sprawling Boeing Co. campus just
northwest of the airport is the largest of a core of industries, including
MD Helicopters, Talley Defense Systems, and Special Devices Inc.,
manufacturers of chemical air-bag igniters.

The Longbow Business Park and Golf Club north of the airport attracts
golfers daily, but construction of the business park of light-industrial
space, office and retail overlooking the 18-hole course is on hold.

"I think the change is good," said Greg Neal, who works for Arizona Aircraft
Interior Designs, one of the airport's more than 50 businesses. "The only
hassle was getting to the business when the roads were rebuilt, but I'm
satisfied with everything else."

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