With plans to pursue Part 139 certification from the FAA, city officials are laying the groundwork for scheduled passenger service and increased corporate activity. This ambitious vision aims to position Greeley as a key gateway to the Front Range.

AirlineGeeks had the opportunity to interview Paul Trombino, the current director of public works for the city of Greeley, to help understand his vision and the city’s ambitions for the airport. Trombino assumed the role of director in June 2021 and has now added the airport to his list of areas where the city has significant growth potential.

Greeley-Weld County Airport

Greeley-Weld County Airport was built in 1944 as a small regional airport. In the late 1940s, it saw small commercial service operations, with Challenger Airlines serving Greeley as a stop between Billings, Montana (KBIL), and Denver along with Salt Lake City (KSLC) and Denver. Ultimately, service ended, and the airport has since become a general aviation airport with around 120,000 operations annually.

In 1996, the airport underwent its most comprehensive expansion since opening in partnership with the FAA. It constructed a new 10,000-foot runway and taxiway system, along with a terminal, administration building, and landside infrastructure improvements to improve accessibility to the airport. Trombino highlighted how this significant investment was a sign of a strong “growth plan since 1996” and added how “[the city] has always seen potential in the airport” with the foundation already being set.

The airport is uniquely positioned because it already has a 10,000-foot runway. According to GlobalAir.com, the only public airports in Colorado with 10,000-foot plus runways are Colorado Springs (KCOS), Centennial (KAPA), Denver, Grand Junction (KGJT), Greeley, Hayden (KHDN), Montrose (KMTJ), and Pueblo (KPUB).

But what sets Greeley apart from this short list of airports?

Other than Centennial, which serves as a reliever airport for Denver International (KDEN), all other airports already see commercial service, making Greeley an attractive airport for future service additions. In fact, according to the FAA’s National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, Greeley is currently the only public airport with a 10,000-foot runway in Colorado that is classified as a GA facility.

Development Plans

As mentioned, Greeley has a unique 10,000-foot runway, but what else can the airport offer for the Front Range? For one, the airport is already profitable as a GA airport serving the community.

“Rural airports typically operate in the red, but Greeley is in the black, which is unique,” Trombino said.

The airport is projecting significant growth in the next 10 and 20 years, with revenue jumping from $125 million in 2023 to $360 million by 2033 and nearly $700 million by 2043.

Trombino is adamant that he “wants the current businesses to [stay] successful,” as bringing more operations to the airport “will bring more customers, from maintenance to fuel,” even with the city’s growth plans.

Its operational outlook aligns with this vision, with projections showing growth from 120,000 operations in 2023 to 300,000 by 2033 and 600,000 by 2043.

Another major player spurring this growth is JBS USA Foods, a major meat processing company headquartered in Greeley. The company currently operates its corporate jets out of Fort Collins but is looking to move to Greeley.

JBS is looking to move to Greeley by March 2026 and needs a new hangar and taxiway built for its needs. It also needs the runway to be developed to increase weight limits from the current 45,000 pounds to a minimum of 65,000 pounds, or even 100,000 pounds. Trombino sees this opportunity as “phenomenal for setting us up for success” and believes it will be an excellent platform for the city to present to the FAA as a necessity for an increase in runway weight.

Trombino stated that the FAA “envisions Greeley as one of the main airports in Colorado, alongside Denver and Colorado Springs.”

Furthermore, the airport does not face the same constraints as similar regional airports. Many airports near the Denver metro area suffer from environmental, capacity, and space limitations, but Trombino believes that Greeley’s location is insulated from such issues.

“[The city views] the space in and around the airport [like] a blank canvas,” he said. “The other airports don’t have the length that we do, and more importantly, they all have housing around them, which causes constraints that we don’t face.”

When specifically asked about similar competitor airports like Northern Colorado Regional (KFNL) in Loveland and Rocky Mountain Metropolitan (KBJC) in Broomfield, Trombino said that they “have capacity challenges,” and don’t necessarily have the “capacity to expand.”

The city also believes there is no better time than now to invest heavily in the airport.

“If the airport doesn’t follow the growth of the city, it will become an economic drag, as we think about the city in the future, including transportation,” Trombinso said.

With the recent announcement that the American Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles are moving to Greeley from Loveland and the University of Northern Colorado is building its Osteopathic Medical School in downtown Greeley, Trombino believes that “all of the things are starting to align for businesses and residents for further growth and jobs.”

With the Greeley-Weld County Airport directly sitting within the Colorado Enterprise Zone, it provides tax advantages for new businesses to invest in and around the airport. The city recently presented its Strategic Airport Business Plan to the FAA, highlighting how the airport can also develop an agriport and railport to connect. A major highlight is that the city “has the ability to create a spur off the main [Union Pacific Railroad] line,” which, in Trombino’s view, will open the airport and the surrounding area for further freight operations.

Future Airport Vision

It’s clear that the city has a strong vision for the airport, but building it up and making it commercially successful requires more than solid infrastructure. This includes interest from operators in utilizing the airport, alongside facing issues such as not being equipped with an air traffic control tower.

Trombino believes that there are multiple ways for Greeley to tackle this.

The 233rd Space Group is located right next to the airport and already utilizes some areas of the field. Trombino believes that if the city “made improvements, [the airport] could be a great training space for the Air Force National Guard.”

The city is exploring the option of taking advantage of its partnership with Aims Community College. Trombino views Aims as “such a good partner” and potentially “building an ATC tower in partnership with Aims” to allow training to occur at the airport, too.

Other ideas have also been proposed, including utilizing a remote tower system, which would be cheaper for the airport in capital and labor costs.

“I’m not afraid of having Greeley at the forefront of technology,” he said. “It’s a matter of where we are and where the industry is heading, [so] we haven’t built a new airport in the country since 1995.”

The logical next step is to understand the market dynamics of the surrounding area and how to convince airlines and passengers to select Greeley over Denver and Cheyenne, both of which are an hour away from the city, with all of the developmental plans starting to take place.

Trombino says the city wants to start conversing with carriers like JSX and others “by the end of the year.” His reasoning stems from reduced security costs and a proven model at Rocky Mountain.

Airlines such as JSX “will be important” and “could be competitive” at an airport like Greeley.

He compared the airport to existing models like Chicago-Midway or Orange County, allowing people to get in and out of the busier metro more efficiently than the bigger, more congested airports nearby.

The city “thinks that this needs to be a high-end airport,” with Trombino personally believing that Greeley could “become a primary ancillary airport” in the Front Range.

“The airlines have to know who we are and that we are coming,” Trombino said. “I think we will be the new place to be, and the people in the northern Front Range will be surprised.”

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AirlineGeeks.com.

The post Greeley’s Ambitious Plan to Become Colorado’s Third Major Airport appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

On Thursday night, the council will vote on a resolution, but that doesn’t mean the Portage Municipal Airport (C47) will close, stressed city administrator Michael Bablick.

According to Bablick, the resolution as written directs city staff to contact the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics and the FAA to determine what steps would need to be taken to shut down the 106-acre, city-owned facility and potentially sell the property to a developer. 

Bablick, who has served in his role with the city for just a few months, said  the airport has been a topic of discussion for decades.

Leif Gregerson, president of Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 371 based at the airport,  pointed out that what makes the airport property so valuable is its field elevation of 824 feet, which puts the land above the floodplain for the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. 

“There have been grumblings about closure of the airport for years,” Gregorson said. “It is in the city limits, one of the few spots considered prime building location because most of the city is located on wetlands.”

According to Airnav.com, there are 21 single-engine aircraft based at the airport. Most of the traffic is transient, as the airport is a popular destination for cross-country flights.

Gregerson said that during EAA AirVenture, the aviation convention that attracts pilots from all over the world, the airport gets very busy as a popular fuel stop or a divert airport when Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH) in Oshkosh is closed because of the air show or field capacity—or when the weather turns sour.

“We’re just 50 miles away from Oshkosh,” Gregorson said, “which makes the airport very convenient for pilots. Our EAA chapter sells food during that time, so the pilots don’t have to walk down the street to the convenience store.”

Other EAA activities held year-round include Young Eagles rallies and pancake breakfasts, which Gregerson said are usually well attended.

Airport History

Portage Municipal Airport was privately constructed by the Mael family in the early 1940s. The airport has two runways: 18/36, measuring 3,770 by 60 feet, and 4/22 ( 2,688 by 40). At the time, the property was a flat spot outside of town.

“In 1961 the Mael family donated the airport to the city,” said Bablick, adding that it costs the city approximately $100,000 a year to operate the facility, representing about 1.25 percent of its annual budget.

Over the decades, the city grew to a population of approximately 10,500, and the airport is surrounded by light industry and housing developments. In addition, it is hemmed in by infrastructure.

“Interstate 39 is extraordinarily close to the airport on the north, and on the south end are high tension wires, cutting off the ability to expand the north-south runway,” Bablick said.

“The high tension wires shouldn’t have been put there,” Gregerson said. “The city didn’t have the foresight to create ordinances and setbacks to protect the airport. The city did not establish any ordinances that would have protected the airport against encroachment by businesses and residential development or height restrictions.”

As an example, Gregerson, a 20-year pilot, mentioned that at one point the city was using land off the extended centerline of the runway as a dumping ground for brush and weeds cleaned up from different parts of the city. The pile grew so tall that it became a hazard for air traffic, forcing the airport manager to take the issue to public works to get it relocated so it was not situated off the end of the runway.

“The city is not anti-airport,” said Bablick, noting the idea of building a new airport in a different location has been discussed since 1965. “When there was a development plan for the airport, [it] noted deficiencies of the current property, which included the inability to extend the runway. People have been saying ‘we’re 20 years away from a new airport’ for 30 years. Twenty years ago, the city purchased farmland to the north to build a new airport, but it didn’t work out, and that resulted in bad blood with the FAA.”

Bablick said the city has never accepted funds from either the state bureau of aeronautics or the FAA for airport improvements, although the airport could benefit from infrastructure enhancements like new pavement. When an airport sponsor accepts state or federal grant funds, it often comes with the caveat that the facility must stay open and  for a specific amount of time, perhaps as long as 20 years, depending on the size of the grant.

The airport is part of the FAA National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2021-2025 as a general aviation facility, even though the city has never accepted funds from the FAA or the Wisconsin Bureau of Aeronautics.

The state bureau referred questions from FLYING to the city of Portage, and the FAA did not respond to queries by press time.

The Pilots React

When the aviation community learned of the resolution to explore the closure process, it was quick to sound the alarm. Portage city hall has been flooded with emails and phone calls urging the council to vote against the resolution to keep the airport open.

The resolution is expected to be heard at the August 24 meeting at the municipal building council chambers, located at 115 West Pleasant Street in Portage. The meeting, scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. CDT, will also be broadcast on YouTube at the following link:

The post Future Looks Questionable for Portage Airport in Wisconsin appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“A lot of people think that you can go in, develop it, and that they will come,” Retrum said. “But that doesn’t necessarily work at every airport. You have to understand what the market is first. That seems simple, but a lot of times it’s not.”

Through more than two decades of industry experience, Retrum has seen the success of dozens of hangar projects and other on-airport developments predicated on proper examination of marketplace demand and other factors.

His first foray in the space was working for Signature Flight Support as a national sales manager. After five years with Signature, he transitioned to another well-known business aviation company, ARINCDirect. Following his departure in 2007, Retrum was entrusted with business development and marketing efforts for SunBorne’s 125-acre Centennial InterPort master-planned aviation development at Centennial Airport (KAPA) near Denver, Colorado. 

Eight years later, and after managing roughly 250,000 square feet of commercial hangar space with that organization, Retrum co-founded Business Aviation Group. Not only does the Centennial, Colorado-based company provide feasibility and analysis services, it also offers numerous other services to developers and FBOs across the country. 

“Business Aviation Group does a lot of different things. And again, my background is aviation real estate, so I concentrate on valuation, transaction, and marketing. I have been a Colorado real estate broker for the last 10 years, so that’s what my focus is. Then we have a project management leg of the stool as well, which is a big portion of our business. With that, we are helping FBOs and developers go out and project manage these developments. These range from big corporate hangars down to condo hangars or executive hangar-type developments,” Retrum began.

“We are doing that across the country and have about 12 different projects that we are working on right now. Several of those are here in Colorado, but others are spread across the country. Some of those projects, we are invested on the development side, so we are actually in the capital stack ourselves. On other projects, we serve as a consultant and help those through the process, which is another key aspect of our business.”

The list of projects that the company is presently undertaking within the Centennial State includes: 

AeroFNL at Northern Colorado Regional Airport (KFNL)

• 77,000 sq. ft of new box hangars 
• 23 hangars: 2,600–5,100 sq. ft.

GarCo Premier Hangars at Rifle/Garfield Airport (KRIL)

• 56,400 sq. ft. of business and general aviation hangars
• 15 hangars: 2,750–14,000 sq. ft.

AeroHDN at Yampa Valley Regional Airport (KHDN)

• 58,000 sq. ft. of executive and corporate hangars
• 3,600–4,800 sq. ft. executive units
• 28,400 sq. ft. corporate hangar

In total, these three projects add nearly 200,000 sq. ft. of additional hangar space within the state—at airports that are growing or are expected to in the near future. As a result of these and other projects undertaken throughout his tenure within the industry, Retrum has become adept at the art and science of airport property valuation. This is a topic that he frequently discusses with other members of the aviation community. 

“I generally tell [fellow] pilots, and I have been on the soapbox for quite a while, that I always see value in the real estate at airports. But so many folks go out and put the ‘For Sale’ sign on their hangar, and they sell it for what the guy next to them sold theirs for. They don’t really take the time to expose the listing to the market and understand its real value. And there are so many different value pieces when it comes to ground leasing, and cash flows, as well as other aspects,” Retrum noted.

“Certainly, as a broker, I always say that I can add value in that for you, but the best thing to do is, if nothing else, is to market the property. You have to put it in the marketplace to get the best offers on real estate. And so much of what we do is beyond your local community. These days, I am marketing regionally and nationally. I’m getting calls from New York and such, which is important. If you really want to extract the most value out of the time and energy you put into your aviation real estate asset, is to go out and market it.” 

Not only does Business Aviation Group work in the commercial side of aviation real estate, but they are also heavily involved with residential airpark listings. 

“Colorado airparks are hard to get into these days. I would say that most of the communities in the state have waiting lists…Typically, we do more of what I call buyer representation at airparks, because of their waiting lists. So, we help pilots infiltrate them, rather than going out and marketing the individual communities or the listings themselves. We are helping pilots figure out how to get into those communities. And there has been a lot more activity in recent years on the airpark side of our business.”

Retrum added that Colorado has 13 fly-in communities. Since he has had listings at, or has become familiar with, all these communities—he can better educate prospective buyers.

“It’s always interesting going from airpark to airpark. There is such a difference in professionality in HOA documents, and the like, between them. Some airparks are just the wild west and those are typically the ones that have lower values. But just because of the general residential market in Colorado, all airpark homes are high commodities right now.” 

Retrum has long curated a resource to highlight these airport properties, both residential and commercial, to the national aviation community. 

“I developed Hangar Network in 2013. I saw a need for the ability to communicate with aviation real estate on the national level, because I had this 125 acres, and it was very difficult to communicate it across the broader web. Hangar Network was very successful and today has turned into Aviation Property Network (APN). It has become the MLS for aviation real estate. APN is meant to accommodate all aspects of aviation real estate, such as on-airport private hangars, FBOs, hangar homes, and airports themselves,” he said.

“Attached to the web service is an affiliate network of Aviation Real Estate Specialists that specialize within their region or state. These folks have been trained to understand the value on a local basis and are well suited to help folks find, sell, and value aviation real estate.”

Retrum added that the organization will have representation at Sun n’ Fun Aerospace Expo this year through their southeastern APN affiliates.

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