But these hangars will barely make a dent in the airport’s demand. At least 170 people are on the waitlist for the next available spaces, Airport Operations Analyst Benjamin Squire said.
“We can’t build hangars fast enough,” Airport Director Ken Carley said. “We know that there is a demand for hangar space here of all different heights and sizes.”
Currently, 205 tenants rent or own hangar space at the McKinney airport, but almost as many are waiting for spaces to store their planes, ranging in size from a “single-engine piston to a larger corporate aircraft,’’ Carley said.
McKinney National Airport, also known as TKI, is a “general aviation reliever airport” for personal and business aviation transportation. According to the airport’s website, it supports all civilian flight except for scheduled commercial passenger airlines.
The additional hangar spaces are expected to drive business to the airport, Carley said, especially as bigger companies and headquarters continue moving to the McKinney area.
“Turns out that the No. 1 identifier to where a business locates their plane is the proximity from the owner or CEO’s house,” said Andrew Smith, president of McRight-Smith, the development and construction company building the new hangars. “We are reaching out to a lot of people that might be looking, and if the timing works out, we’re definitely going to pursue something.”
Demand for hangars
The demand for hangar space in McKinney is on trend with the rest of North Texas, according to Smith.
Before construction has even started, seven of the 10 hangars have already been pre-sold, Smith said.
“We have a lot of interest in it right now, so I think it’ll probably be sold out by the time we break ground next year,” Smith said.
Brandon Durbin is one of the seven who have pre-purchased a new hangar to store a plane used for company business. Durbin said he has been renting older hangars at the airport since 2008.
“Unfortunately, there are not enough hangars at [the airport],” Durbin said in an email. “There is a lack of hangar space across North Texas.”
In the last two years, the airport has added a significant amount of hangar space, including a 40,000-square-foot hangar that opened in April. But the airport still needs more space, officials said.
McRight-Smith is modeling the new development off of a similar 24-hangar development at the McKinney airport that was built 12 years ago. This project, the Collin County Hangar Owners Association, or CCHOA, is located on the south end of the airport. The new 10-hangar project, CCHOA North, will replicate these hangers on the north end, Smith said.
Construction is set to start in mid-February or March, and the hangars are expected to open by the end of 2020, Smith said.
“When [CCHOA] was originally done, there were no hangars like it at the airport,” Smith said. “We pre-sold all 24 of them in 15 minutes. In fact, the original CCHOA was only going to have 12 hangars, but we had so much interest that we ended up [doubling] the project size in the first week to 24.”
CCHOA was initially filled by only private and personal aircraft, but the airport hopes to attract more business-related aviation usage with CCHOA North.
“The hangars being built are large enough for a small jet or turboprops that are able to be used by small business[es] ... but without hangar space it is hard to base planes and use the airport to attract business aviation,” Durbin said in the email.
Now three or four of the original CCHOA hangars house business aircrafts, Carley said.
“There is actually even one medical air rescue unit down there,” Carley said. “They actually have their crew quarters built into one of the hangars and got it staffed 24/7, and they do medical transport and things like that.”
Carley said CCHOA North could potentially house similar businesses, which would also create jobs.
“It just depends on who goes in there and how they use it,” he said.
Economic impact
Not only will the new hangars provide more space for aircraft owners, but over the next 40 years, the 10 hangars are expected to generate more than $6.6 million in economic impact for the community, according to Carley.
“This is also a great opportunity for McKinney and the airport to pick up a lot of investment capital,” Smith said.
CCHOA North will be privately funded by the developer, who will sell the hangars to tenants. The developer will pay the airport nearly $63,000 a year for a ground lease on the 2.2 acres the development will use.
Of that projected $6.6 million, $3.4 million will go directly to the city of McKinney in the form of property tax revenue, said Carley.
As of October, the new airport hangars are listed for purchase at $469,000 each. The hangars are subject to the same property taxes as residential homes. And if an aircraft is registered as a business aircraft, it, too, is subject to property taxes. Based on the current property tax rates, each hangar will be responsible for $2,286 a year in tax revenue to the city, $6,921 to McKinney ISD and $1,140 to Collin College, according to Carley.
In addition, tenants will also pay the airport for fuel and other services available.
Fuel sales are the biggest revenue driver for the airport, according to Carley.
Continuing growth
The airport has big plans to continue expanding, Carley said.
Currently, the airport is working with the Texas Department of Transportation to conduct a $15 million environmental impact study to assess the best way to extend the airport’s runway another 1,500 feet.
According to Carley, a runway extension will allow the airport to accommodate larger planes and aircraft taking longer distance trips or heavier airplanes carrying more fuel.
“The runway extension is one of the projects identified in our airport master plan for the one- to five-year time frame,” Carley said in an email. “It will allow aircraft using the airport to operate with higher useful loads, enhance safety and offer more flexibility for aircraft operators.”
Construction of the runway is not expected to start until late 2021.
Also under construction is a new fixed-based operator, or FBO, terminal, which provides services such as airplane fueling, hangar rentals, flight instruction and similar services. The FBO terminal is expected to be completed near the end of this year, according to Western LLC, the company constructing the terminal.
Once complete, the terminal will include a flight planning room, a pilot lounge, a media room, two conference rooms, an outdoor lounge, on-site car rentals, packaged storage, curbside luggage service, Wi-Fi and a new parking lot.
Another project at the McKinney airport is the opening of personal aviation company Cirrus Aircraft next year. Cirrus will offer flight kits; training on piloting, operations and air safety; and aircraft maintenance and support services.
Carley said the airport also hopes to purchase more land in the near future to accommodate further growth of the airport.
