New Owner of GA Airport Seeks NY Funds for Improvements

A company owned by developer Michael J. Falcone has purchased a small airport near his Skaneateles home and has applied for state funding to fix it up.

Hobbit Hollow Farm LLC bought the Skaneateles Aero Drome at 2984 Benson Road in April for $605,000, county property tax records show. Hobbit Hollow Farm is the name of a bed-and-breakfast inn owned by Falcone near the airport.

Now, Falcone is seeking two grants from the state Air Improvement and Revitalization Grant and Loan Program, known as Air'99.

One would go toward a fuel facility, the other for a hangar, said Carol Breen, speaking for the state Department of Transportation.

Falcone also has applied for two Business Aviation Development Program grants from DOT, Breen said. They would be used to rehabilitate the airport's 3,134-foot asphalt runway and install runway lighting, she said.

Both programs require Onondaga County to endorse Falcone's applications. County Legislator James Rhinehart, R-Skaneateles, said he plans to introduce a resolution to endorse the Air'99 grant at the Jan. 30 meeting of the Legislature Ways and Means Committee.

Falcone declined an earlier request for an interview and could not be reached Wednesday for comment. It could not be learned how much aid he is seeking or the total cost of the proposed projects.

"It sounds good to me," said Skaneateles Supervisor Phil Tierney, who has been briefed by Falcone on his airport plans. "The existing use is a definite asset to the community. It's a nice site and the airport use, I think, adds to the charm and character of the community."

To his knowledge, he said, the plans do not entail a runway expansion and no town review appears to be needed, aside from issuing building permits.

Falcone is a prominent real estate developer whose office projects included One Park Place, the AT&T Building and several buildings in Franklin Square, all in Syracuse. He proposed to build a hotel for the Oncenter Convention Center, but labor issues resulted in him transferring the project to Thomas Wilmot. Besides the bed and breakfast, Falcone operates a vineyard in Skaneateles at his West Lake Road home.

Skaneateles Aero Drome is a public-use airport. It's the home field for 19 single-engine aircraft and one multiple-engine plane, and handles 9,100 flights a year, according to FltPlan.com, an aviation service for pilots.

Tierney said the airport tends to serve airplane enthusiasts and commuting business people. It used to handle more planes and flights, former owner Robert Grenga said, before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks sent general aviation into a tailspin from which it's now recovering.

The Aero Drome's grass runway is in good shape, but its paved runway is in poor condition with a non-standard edge-lighting system and poor markings, according to FltPlan.com.

Grenga said he made money at the airport by storing planes at $125 to $250 a month.

He said he had hoped to redevelop its 97 acres into a housing tract, but changed his mind when underground tests showed it would be too involved to build septic systems for the homes.

Grenga, who said he was nearing retirement, decided to sell the airport at auction. Falcone was the winning bidder. "I was satisfied with it," Grenga said of the price.

Air'99 caps grant awards at $300,000 per project, meaning Falcone could seek no more than $600,000 for the two projects he's seeking to finance through that program, Breen said.

There is no size limit on Business Airport Development grants, she said, but the pot of money the grants come from contains $16 million to be given out over three years statewide.

Both grant programs require applicants to provide at least 10 percent of the total project cost. Air '99's guidelines suggests that applicants who provide a bigger fraction would get greater consideration.

Both programs also weigh project benefits versus costs and the impact of a project on area business growth and aviation safety, among other factors.

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