June 17--WINTER HAVEN -- A Winter Haven flight school caught in a months-long lease dispute with the city of Winter Haven finally has a lease -- but it's for space in Lakeland.
Tailwheels Etc. owner John Amundsen began moving his flight school this week to a second-floor suite in a Lakeland Linder Regional Airport building at 3131 Flightline Drive in Lakeland.
The move ends a leasing dispute that broke out into a contentious debate between Amundsen and Commissioner Jamie Beckett at a March commission meeting. It included allegations the city was forcing the school off the airport to increase the chances of a Winter Haven airport flight school landing a new Polk State College contract.
Sitting in his new office, with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the Lakeland Linder runway, Amundsen said Friday: "It's like a breath of fresh air dealing with the people over here. We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop (during negotiations). It's a difference between night and day (between Lakeland and Winter Haven)."
The lease in question was for a 13,635-square-foot brick hangar on the southeast side of the airport, located at 3000 21st St. N.W. in Winter Haven.
Tailwheels Etc. had been paying about $800 per month to sublease the space from the airport's former fixed-base operator. The proposed lease from Winter Haven would have increased that payment to $4,036.04, including sales tax.
Amundsen had said he would like to bring down the cost of rent, but was more concerned with getting more than a lease-prescribed nine parking spaces for his approximate 18 planes, and clarifications on other clauses in the lease.
Tailwheels Etc.'s new home is a 2,600-square-feet suite with a large hangar elsewhere in the building, for about the same price Amundsen was paying in Winter Haven before the rent increase, Amundsen said. Tailwheels is a sublease tenant of Sands Aviation, LLC, which leases the building from the Lakeland airport.
Best of all, Amundsen and Tailwheels General Manager Gary Francis said, the flight school's new home is a place for it to grow.
"The other building was a very old building and it was just kind of hodgepodge put together," Amundsen said. "(The new building) is laid out pretty well. We've got a nice place."
Amundsen and Francis said their employees and students are excited to be making the move, even if it means a longer commute.
"They're like, 'Yeah, we're moving up,'?" Amundsen said.
Amundsen expects flight operations to resume in two weeks.
When it does, it will be the second flight school for an airport that had none just a couple months ago, according to Lakeland Linder Airport Director Gene Conrad. Bernoulli Flight Academy just opened at the Lakeland airport.
"We're looking forward to having Tailwheels here," Conrad said. "I think they will be a great addition for us and obviously bring a significant amount of more traffic here."
Copyright 2012 - The Ledger, Lakeland, Fla.
