May Build T Hangars at Small Airport
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N747JB
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A builder/developer at my airport, KCCO, Newnan Ga, has been building T-hangars and box hangars for a couple years. But, as you stated it’s not a good investment. They are selling the hangars prior to construction. I believe the basic T-hangars are around $100K, plus monthly ground lease and yearly county taxes. They have built approximately 20 T-hangars and several bigger box hangars, but they aren’t renting any of them.
I’m having a 48X50 built this spring, not cheap, but there aren’t many options for rentals.
bonefishpete
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Bonefishpete
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How many square feet in a T Hanger? Single engine light twin size. Cost per square foot including apron and such.A builder/developer at my airport, KCCO, Newnan Ga, has been building T-hangars and box hangars for a couple years. But, as you stated it’s not a good investment. They are selling the hangars prior to construction. I believe the basic T-hangars are around $100K, plus monthly ground lease and yearly county taxes. They have built approximately 20 T-hangars and several bigger box hangars, but they aren’t renting any of them.
I’m having a 48X50 built this spring, not cheap, but there aren’t many options for rentals.
N747JB
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I don’t have the dimensions on the T’s, mine is 48X50 including a bathroom and office, insulated with electric door. $350,000 including all apron work. I’ll probably add some type of heat for really cold weather.
Chris Dickens
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A friend and I are considering doing this at our local airport. Wait lists in this area (western NC) exceeed 3-4 years. We've discussed building a hangar big enough to fit 4 airplanes, and leasing out half the space. The local airport has fairly cheap 30 year lease terms (I'm 52 so I'd likely sell my lease before it expired). The airport allows subleasing with their approval...and considering the airport manager wants to grow the number of based aircraft, they seem very amenable to the idea. Insurance is required, but I have no idea how much that costs because at this stage it's just an idea.
Chris Dickens
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I built my house in NC last year. It was supposed to be an $850k project. Our neighbor's house, which was built in 2017 and is about the same size/style as our house, sold for $750k in 2020. By the time our house was complete, we had sunk $1.2 million into it, including cash and the construction loan. So yes, construction costs have exploded in recent years. I don't know if that translates the same into the commercial metal building market or not.
There are several pre-fab T-Hangar manufactures. Erect-A-Tube, Fulfab, R&M Steel, and a few others.
If it's a public agency as someone mentioned, the costs will be a lot higher. Especially if they're using FAA AIP grants; that adds DBE % requirements, Federal Wage Rates, and Buy American clauses that all drive the costs up. If they are self funding, it's extremely difficult to cash flow the hangar; the rents will be so high its nearly impossible. Airports will still build them, because more based aircraft means more fuel sales and FBO fees, so they can afford to lose a little on the hangar lease if the net overall is still positive.
As a private owner, you can't really afford to take a loss, unless you're doing it intentionally to offset your other business profits... For cost cutting, you can be the general contractor, and subcontract each trade separately. Spend the $$ to have the building staff come and erect it will save time/money, too, as they'll put it up in a hurry. Some of the "extra" things that are nice to haves but add a TON of costs are electric doors, insulation, "excessive" electrical outlets, etc. (By excessive, I mean, put anything larger than a single 114v outlet and you're asking for owners to do maintenance & run tools. If that's allowable, your insurance costs will go up. Better you say that's not allowed, and don't provide the power to do it.)
You probably will need an Engineer to handle the site layout & permitting aspect of the project, unless you hire a Design/Build Contractor to just do it all (those are out there, too).
Also, when you're doing your cash flow calcs, don't forget that you'll have 2 storage units on the ends. The airport may rent space for their mower/tractor, or you may be able to rent those out as additional storage. Depending on the T-Hangar size, these can be pretty decent size rooms for an RV or large vehicle as long as you put a large enough door on it. The airport's rules may prevent leasing it out separately as non-aviation use, so you may have to bundle it in with a T-Hangar and then what the renter does with it is not something you'll want to know
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All of this could be misconstrued as advice, but it's not I'm probably not licensed in your state, and probably wouldn't be able to help more than just some general items above. If you're in one of the Southeast or Central states, I can point you to a good Engineering company to handle that side of it and help you really plan it out & come up with real costs. Unfortunately mine wouldn't be able to help as we're restricted from working with private developers 99.999999% of the time.
If it's a public agency as someone mentioned, the costs will be a lot higher. Especially if they're using FAA AIP grants; that adds DBE % requirements, Federal Wage Rates, and Buy American clauses that all drive the costs up. If they are self funding, it's extremely difficult to cash flow the hangar; the rents will be so high its nearly impossible. Airports will still build them, because more based aircraft means more fuel sales and FBO fees, so they can afford to lose a little on the hangar lease if the net overall is still positive.
As a private owner, you can't really afford to take a loss, unless you're doing it intentionally to offset your other business profits... For cost cutting, you can be the general contractor, and subcontract each trade separately. Spend the $$ to have the building staff come and erect it will save time/money, too, as they'll put it up in a hurry. Some of the "extra" things that are nice to haves but add a TON of costs are electric doors, insulation, "excessive" electrical outlets, etc. (By excessive, I mean, put anything larger than a single 114v outlet and you're asking for owners to do maintenance & run tools. If that's allowable, your insurance costs will go up. Better you say that's not allowed, and don't provide the power to do it.)
You probably will need an Engineer to handle the site layout & permitting aspect of the project, unless you hire a Design/Build Contractor to just do it all (those are out there, too).
Also, when you're doing your cash flow calcs, don't forget that you'll have 2 storage units on the ends. The airport may rent space for their mower/tractor, or you may be able to rent those out as additional storage. Depending on the T-Hangar size, these can be pretty decent size rooms for an RV or large vehicle as long as you put a large enough door on it. The airport's rules may prevent leasing it out separately as non-aviation use, so you may have to bundle it in with a T-Hangar and then what the renter does with it is not something you'll want to know
.All of this could be misconstrued as advice, but it's not I'm probably not licensed in your state, and probably wouldn't be able to help more than just some general items above. If you're in one of the Southeast or Central states, I can point you to a good Engineering company to handle that side of it and help you really plan it out & come up with real costs. Unfortunately mine wouldn't be able to help as we're restricted from working with private developers 99.999999% of the time.
AvNavCom
Pre-takeoff checklist
There is, but we turned down a $100M design contract w/ Amazon, so it's gonna' have to be pretty darned substantial!