Skybus Headquarters Site to Be Near Port Columbus

Skybus Airlines has picked a site near Port Columbus for its headquarters.

The Columbus startup airline, which hopes to begin flying in March, has signed a five-year lease for 100,000 square feet of office and hangar space at the Columbus International Air-Center.

The company is receiving $57 million in state and local incentives to aid its startup.

The space in the 3 million-square-foot center had been vacant.

The building, on 5th Avenue on the south side of the airport, formerly was used by companies such as McDonnell-Douglas Corp. to manufacture military planes.

It was bought 10 years ago by an investment group led by Schottenstein Stores Corp. Chairman Jay Schottenstein.

Other tenants in the building include shoe retailer DSW Inc. and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Schottenstein Management manages and leases the space.

Skybus President Ken Gile called the center an "ideal location," as it abuts the runway that Skybus will use when its planes take off and land at Port Columbus' Terminal B. Skybus has raised more than $100 million from firms including Fidelity and Morgan Stanley.

Central Ohio investors include Battelle, Huntington Capital Investment Co., Nationwide and Wolfe Enterprises Inc., a subsidiary of The Dispatch Printing Company, publisher of The Dispatch.

The airline expects to have 200 employees when it begins flying early next year and as many as 350 by the end of 2007.

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