Aviation management company JetAccess plans to take all 80,000 square feet at a new project on the southwestern side of Dallas Executive Airport, including two hangars and an office building.
Developer Rodney Burchfield broke ground Tuesday on the estimated $20 million project that he hopes will spur development at the underutilized Dallas Executive Airport, six miles south of downtown and formerly known as Redbird Airport.
The project is expected to be finished in late 2023 and will have one hangar as a fixed-based operator location and another for maintenance, said JetAccess chief operating officer Jesse Klemme.
“This is an airfield with significant potential,” said JetAccess CEO Quinn Ricker. “Dallas is No. 3 in the entire country for registered aircraft and this airport has better access to downtown than any other.”
JetAccess, which already has a facility on the north side of the airport, will use the space to store and maintain corporate and private jets, maintain its fleet of 40 aircraft and run flight services for charter companies. JetAccess also partners with four flight schools to train about 400 students and the new facilities will expand the number of students it can host, Ricker said.
JetAccess isn’t sure yet if it will keep its hangars on the other side of the airport when the new facility opens, Ricker said.
Developer Burchfield & Partners is starting work on the aviation facility that was approved by Dallas City Council in early 2018, including $7.6 million slated for allocation from public capital construction funds.
After that, Burchfield said several potential tenants pulled out of the deal, including the first announced tenant, RBR Maintenance.
Along the way, he brought in former NBA player E’Twaun Moore, who spent 11 years as a professional basketball player, as an investment partner. Burchfield said Moore is a relative.
Burchfield said the new hangars and office space will be the first part of two phases at the 1,040-acre site, although he did not have details on what would be involved with future development.
Burchfield’s original involvement with the property was controversial because he was formerly employed by Dallas’ aviation department and worked on real estate projects at Love Field and Dallas Executive Airport. City Council approved the project on a narrow vote in 2018 with reservations because of Burchfield’s professional ties to the city.
Dallas Executive Airport has long been a priority project for politicians and city officials because of its location in southern Dallas. There has also been interest in pushing general aviation and corporate jet traffic south from Dallas Love Field, which is already busy as the nation’s 31st largest commercial ariport.
Nearly a decade ago, the city and state spent $33 million to extend the airport’s runway to 7,000 feet to handle bigger jets favored by corporate clients.
What is needed next is hangar and aviation services to attract more clients, said Mark Duebner, Dallas’ director of aviation.
“There hasn’t been a lot of new development at Dallas Executive for a number of years, and we think it’s got a lot of potential,” Duebner said. “And we’re willing to make this investment to get this project done because we really think it’s going to kick-start everything we hope and we know will happen at Dallas Executive Airport.”
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