City council to review lease agreement for new airport hangars

LACONIA — City council will discuss a potential long-term lease agreement with Emerson Aviation to facilitate the construction of new hangars at Laconia Municipal Airport at their regular meeting Monday night.

The agreement, bound for 40 years but eligible for renegotiation after 20, would generate roughly $25,000 in revenue for the city in its first year at $0.20 per square foot. The rate would be adjusted each year in December based on changes to the urban consumer price index.

The Laconia Airport Authority authorized Mayor Andrew Hosmer to sign the lease agreement at their meeting on March 21. 

The lease area, known as Development Zone No. 9 on the area called the Crosswinds, is adjacent to and inclusive of a closed runway at the airport. 

“We are in the process of developing the property along our closed runway,” Airport Manager Marv Everson said Friday morning. “The runway will not be opened again.”

The airport authority leases the land but doesn’t own the buildings, other than the airport terminal. Private entities construct hangars and Emerson Aviation intends to build several T-shaped hangars which can accommodate smaller aircraft plus two larger hangers which can accommodate jets.

“The airport does not build our own hangars,” Everson said. “The demand has been high for more hangar space.”

The airport has seen an average of 45,000 operations, which include both takeoffs, landings and touch-and-gos, over recent years, Everson said. Takeoffs and landings related to the recently-reported program to confer credits to high school students taking flight lessons at the airport would be included in those statistics.

“It increases our ability to accommodate more traffic here at the airport.”

Everson said most aircraft owners prefer to store their planes indoors, away from the elements.

“We’re leasing airport property to build some hangars on,” Emerson Aviation owner David Emerson said.

It’s a three-pronged lease, meaning Emerson will be responsible for paying the taxes and associated insurance fees in addition to covering the cost of the monthly agreement.

The company plans to construct 20 units, all T-shaped hangars known in the business as “nested Ts” on roughly 3 acres, Emerson said.

There’s a strong desire for more hangar space in the Lakes Region and around the country, he continued.

“There’s no new hangars being built at any airport around here or even around the country really,” Emerson said. “There’s huge demand — it’s an expansion for our company, it attracts business.”

There’s already a 12,000-square-foot “community hangar” at the airport, but many pilots desire their own hangar space to avoid what’s called “hangar rash,” or scrapes, bumps and other minor damage that occurs when moving multiple planes in, out and around the shared storage facility.

Hosmer, who is also the chair of the airport authority, said the lease agreement would help further the development of the airport and the Lakes Region more generally.

The lease agreement would allow Emerson Aviation to increase its footprint at the airport, where there is strong demand for greater hangar space, he said. It will also increase revenue.

“These parcels — of which there are nine, I believe — the square footage would be significant,” Hosmer said Friday. “I think in many respects the airport is truly a hidden gem of our community.”

The existing hangars aren’t large enough to accommodate all that is desired or required, particularly among charter jet companies, he said. The construction of new hangars, which will be large enough to facilitate many size aircraft, will allow more people to take advantage of what the airport has to offer.

The ability for higher-end aircraft to be stored indoors is of particular importance, Hosmer said. Inclement weather is a concern of pilots. The construction of larger, higher-quality aircraft hangars will allow pilots to safely store their planes out of harsh conditions and provide somewhere for the pilots themselves to weather the storm.

The airport authority began the conversation to develop the abandoned runway section about two years ago with a lack of available hangar space in mind. 

“It’s been part of our overall plan at the airport,” he said. 

Recent upgrades have included de-icing capabilities, so larger aircraft charter companies don’t have to worry about that particular hazard. The increased amenities and space provided at the airport will benefit the private aircraft industry greatly, he said.

The lease agreement with Emerson Aviation won’t need to be the subject of a public hearing and could move forward Monday night. 

In other business, city council will:

• Hold a public hearing and later vote on the acceptance of a $25,000 donation from the Jensen Benevolent Fund to support the construction of an outdoor firearms training range for the police department

• Hold a public hearing and later vote on an amendment to the zoning map 

• Hold a public hearing and later vote on the designation of a city-owned parcel on Lafayette Street as conservation land

• Hear a request made by representatives of the Market at the Weirs, a farmer’s market at Weirs Community Park on Saturdays, May 25-Oct. 5, to waive the associated $200 special event and $300 licensing fees  

• Hear a request from the Laconia Airport Authority to waive an easement that is no longer needed

• Approve or deny a zoning amendment related to unsafe structures