Increasing revenue

March 22--Ed Livermore is one of the lucky pilots. He leases one of 16 airport-owned T-hangars for $250 a month to house his single-engine Beechcraft airplane.

There are other hangar spaces -- some leased by Kerrville Aviation and a few privately owned hangars -- but according to airport manager Bruce McKenzie, there aren't enough, and today there are more than 30 aircraft owners on a waiting list for a hangar.

And that has Airport Board members, including Livermore, seeing dollars.

It seems that at almost every board meeting, members talk about future plans to build 20 to 30 new T-hangars. New T-hangars are included in the airport's master plan, in the works now for more than a year, and most members of the board said building them is a "no-brainer."

"It looks like it would be a really good investment if the city and the county want to invest in this," said airport board member Tom Moser.

The airport is jointly owned by the city of Kerrville and Kerr County. Joint ownership means both entities would have to agree before moving forward on any work, and that mean politics.

A T-hangar, sometimes spelled Tee hangar, is a hangar built for one plane. The hangar is named for the shape of an airplane when drawn on a diagram or area plan.

The 16 T-hangars currently at the airport are adjacent to the north taxiway and are simple metal buildings that from the outside look similar to metal storage buildings.

The buildings offer electricity in each unit and have a water spout at the end of the building but no additional amenities.

The airport board is looking at constructing up to 30 new T-hangars on nearby land already owned by the airport. Moser estimated the total cost of the work would be nearly $2 million, but a Texas Department of Transportation grant could fund 90 percent of the horizontal work, cutting the cost to the airport to about $730,000.

If the airport was able to lease those 30 new units for $300 a month, Moser estimates that after financing charges, the net income off the rentals would be $56,000 per year, which would cut into the operating deficit the city and the county now have to fund each year.

"What we're trying to do is get to a position where none of the taxpayers' money is used to operate the airport, and this is a way of increasing revenues so we can reach that end as soon as possible," Moser said.

Last year, the city and the county contributed $110,000 each to the airport budget for a total of $220,000. That amount was down from previous years, but officials still want to see it down more.

Kerr County Commissioner Jonathan Letz serves on an airport advisory committee along with other county officials and representatives from the city. He was present at Monday's airport board meeting and said the county could look at revenue bonds with the city to fund the additional T-hangars.

"We both want the airport to be revenue neutral, and the only way to do that is to increase revenue," Letz said.

But borrowing money, which may not be popular with taxpayers, isn't the only way to build new T-hangars and increase revenue. Livermore suggested a public-private partnership could use public funding for some horizontal work with a state grant and allow private investors to construct the actual hangars.

"When you have owners of these things people are a lot more interested. They are a lot more involved," Livermore said.

Livermore moved to Kerrville from Oklahoma where he said he was part of a private group that constructed T-hangars on property leased from an airport there. Through that plan, the city and the county would fund only the 10 percent match to the TxDOT grant, about $130,000, and the airport would make revenue off the lease of the land.

The individual cost of a T-hangar is about $20,000, and owners would have to contribute something to the maintenance of common areas. The owner would be able to lease or sell their T-hangar at any time.

Joey Kennedy, owner of Kerrville Aviation, the fixed base operator at the airport, leases some large hangar space at the airport and said building more T-hangars for smaller planes would be good for the airport. He said a third option the airport could look at would be to lease the land to a private builder who would construct the T-hangars and rent them to aircraft owners.

All three plans will be presented to the April 4 meeting of the airport advisory board.

Copyright 2012 - Kerrville Daily Times, Texas