Hangar rental interest soars

POTSDAM — The Potsdam Airport might not have so much trouble finding tenants for its conventional hangar after all.

Several pilots are jostling to rent space to store their planes, a few weeks after Village Administrator Michael D. Weil suggested lowering rent to attract a temporary tenant.

The village Board of Trustees will vote Friday on a measure to request offers to rent space in the conventional hangar, which the municipality is building using $300,000 it received through the state Rebuild and Renew New York Transportation Bond Act in 2006.

Originally, officials hoped to rent the hangar for $1,000 a month, but received an offer for $600 instead in June. Trustees seemed ready to accept a lower rate until the airport can attract a business to the space.

"We're going to go with as much as we can get at this point," Mr. Weil said. "Everybody's pandering stuff around, but there's nothing solid."

In the long run, the village and the airport want to attract a full-time plane mechanic, a fixed-base operator or a flight school to the hangar. That plays into Damon Field's long-term goal of having more revenue-generating operations at the airport.

"We don't expect to make a profit on the airport, just like we don't expect to make a profit on Market Street. It's infrastructure. That said, we do want it to be a generator for the economy. We need to bring at least another revenue base to the airport," Mr. Weil said.

At least one area pilot is interested in starting a flight school at Damon Field, Mr. Weil said.

Darren H. Mesibov's flight school, which originally was considered a shoo-in to take over the conventional hangar space last year, stopped its expansion recently.

The village also recently found out it will soon receive approval to move forward with a project to build a T-hangar, an efficient way to store airplanes.

The state Transportation Bond Act program will fund 90 percent of the $495,000 project.

Several Potsdam pilots were prepared to band together to pool money and build the structure with private funds if the state grant hadn't come through. Pilots here either have to leave their planes sitting on the ramp in the snow and ice during the winter or fly them to be stored in spaces at the Massena and Ogdensburg airports.

The T-hangar will be capable of housing eight small planes, compared with the three aircraft that can be stored in the conventional hangar.

"We hope to be able to take bids in the early part of 2010 and do construction when the weather breaks next summer. By this time next year, believably it should be ready for occupancy," Mr. Weil said. "The response we've gotten so far kind of substantiates the feeling we have had; it's the old 'build it and they will come' thing."

Based on the interest the village has received from four or five pilots who want to store their planes in the conventional hangar, it shouldn't be too difficult to find enough tenants to fill the T-hangar, Mr. Weil said.