The Gary Jet Center wants to strike a deal with Gary/Chicago International Airport to build a new $7 million flight facility that would include the airport's first U.S. customs station.
Gary Jet Center owner Wil Davis and business partner Pat Lee presented plans for a new 40,000-square-foot hangar and 6,000-square-foot office building to the Gary/Chicago International Airport Authority at its meeting Tuesday.
The Gary Jet Center opened its second large hangar at the airport just two years ago, a $4.1 million project that was filled to capacity the day it was opened.
"We are anxious to spend $7 million more here with you under a private/public partnership," Lee told airport authority members.
Having a customs facility in the new hangar's office and reception building would allow the Gary airport to finally live up to its full name. Currently it cannot accept general aviation or passenger flights from other nations, even Canada, because it has no customs facility.
Davis said the Gary Jet Center is working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to staff the facility. The federal agency already has staff at the nearby Ports of Indiana Burns Harbor and would not have to be at the airport full time, Davis said.
Tuesday's explanation of the project drew a positive response from authority members and airport director Chris Curry.
"I think the concept is a great one for the airport -- to have a new facility, to have corporate customs -- that is a great asset for the airport," Curry said.
The Gary Jet Center hopes to have the project completed by the end of this year. The project will be publicly bid.
In addition to construction jobs created while work is going on to build the facility, activity at the new hangar once it is open will create 10 permanent jobs, Lee said.
It would be built just south of the airport administration building, within a stone's throw of the hangar the Gary Jet Center built two years ago. The Gary Jet Center's current headquarters hangar and office building is east of the airport terminal building.
Boeing Corp. currently houses its corporate jet fleet at its own facility at the Gary airport and can have customs agents process passengers on its private jets. But that service cannot be extended to others flying into the airport.
The deal between the airport and the Gary Jet Center for getting the hangar built would be much like the previous one two years ago, Lee said. Such a deal would have to be approved by the airport authority for the project to go forward.
The Gary Jet Center will request that the airport authority issue bonds for the project, which the Jet Center will guarantee and pay back out of income earned at the new facility, Lee said.
The airport will actually have ownership of the facility but the Gary Jet Center will have the use of it for the next 39 years under a ground-lease agreement. Under the terms of the lease, the Gary Jet Center will pay the airport authority yearly ground rent of $19,656. That lease would have cost-of-living increases built in.
In addition to the ground lease income, the airport would also receive income estimated at $43,200 per year from increase fuel flowage fees. As the airport's fixed base operator, the Gary Jet Center refuels planes but pays the airport a fee of 9 cents for every gallon it pumps.
The airport also would receive an additional $10,000 per year in landing fees from the increased traffic generated by the new hangar, Lee said.
The Gary Jet Center estimates the airport would receive $2 million in income total from the facility over the 39 years of the lease, according to Lee.
The new hangar will replace 1950s-era wooden hangars that the Gary Jet Center currently leases from the airport. The airport would undertake responsibility for demolishing those, Curry told the authority board.
