Falcon Field Airport strikes deal for new office-hangar spot

Art Thomason
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 8, 2006 12:00 AM

The lonely, blue water tower overlooking 14 vacant acres at Falcon Field Airport's front door for decades will be getting a lot of company during a long-term agreement between Mesa and a developer.

Corporate jet-size hangars, with attached office buildings for aviation-related businesses, and a bank will be built on the site, said Corrine Nystrom, the airport's director.

The pact delivering the 230,000-square-foot complex is the latest in a series of developments hailed as boons to several Valley airports whose biggest business is general aviation.

Vision Airlines announced last week that it was seeking approval to begin daily, scheduled passenger service between Mesa's Williams Gateway Airport and Las Vegas. And Oxford Airline Training Center, one of Europe's biggest commercial pilot training schools, said its recently opened campus at the Phoenix Goodyear Airport could attract as many as 250 students.

Vision also was granted approval last month to begin charter service from Scottsdale Airport to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon beginning June 22. The airlines will open offices and a counter at the airport's main terminal.

On Monday, Williams Gateway will get another lift when the Santan Freeway opens nearby, providing more infrastructure for the airport's cargo operations and a non-stop link between Interstate 10 and the Superstition Freeway in east Mesa.

The Falcon Field development is part of a 50-year lease with Falcon 7 LLC, a corporation whose umbrella covers a group of firms that specialize in architecture, planning and building, said Alan House, a Falcon 7 partner.

"We're very excited," he said. "I grew up around that airport. It's nice to see it going in the direction it should have gone years ago."

The lease will boost airport revenue by nearly $180,000 a year as Nystrom works to make the former World War II pilot training base self-sustaining and help create 100 additional jobs, she said.

The hangar-office complex will be built in three phases, House said. All Falcon 7 businesses will move into the first office building, which is scheduled for completion in a year. He said the name of the bank will be announced later.

Nystrom said the buildings would have a façade of decorative concrete block, or stone, with decorative features that are not reminiscent of "old, metal hangars."

Revised building-design guidelines adopted last year by the city include specific requirements for airport hangars, particularly those that face major streets, she said.

The water tower will stay, Nystrom said.

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