Land that contains one of the few remaining privately owned airports in the Houston area is up for sale.
A 102.5-acre tract along Hwy. 290 west of Huffmeister Road, where the Weiser Airpark is currently located, was listed for sale by Wendy Cline Properties in November.
Brothers Cecil and Robert Weiser first purchased the tract in 1951, which contained a small grass strip called the F.H. Jackson Airport. The brothers renamed the strip Weiser Airpark in 1963, according to the
Weiser website.
When Robert passed away in 2013, his portion of the airpark was rolled into an estate, said Gloria Weiser Ashbaugh, who is the niece of Robert and the daughter of Cecil. When Cecil passed away in November 2017, his portion of the land was rolled into a separate estate. Selling the land is now part of the process of settling those two estates, Gloria said, a process that was started by Cecil before he died.
"We are basically finishing up what he started," she said. "My uncle’s son has been very kind and allowed the land not to be sold as long as my dad was alive. We knew eventually this had to happen, but we didn't know how soon. It's a really, really hard decision.”
Gloria said the airpark—which includes a runway, fueling facilities, offices, a flight school and airplane hangars—is still operational and actively used by area pilots. The property has received interest from several groups so far, she said.
A group of local pilots led by Aberdeen Trails resident Robert Ziegler expressed interest in forming an airport corporation and buying the land when they saw it was up for sale. However, Ziegler said the chances are slim of the group being able to raise the money to compete with other interested buyers.
"We approached this with the kind of realistic view that we could get 100 people with $50,000 each," Ziegler said. "At the moment, the offers seem to be much, much bigger."
Ziegler, who currently keeps his plane at Weiser, said if the property is redeveloped pilots would have to find new places to keep their planes. Options include the West Houston Airport and the Houston Executive Airport, both of which Ziegler said have limited space. Ziegler said he and the other pilots based at Weiser received a letter from the Weiser estates notifying them that the runways will stay in operation for three months after the sale was finalized.
Gloria said what the land is used for will ultimately be up to whoever purchases it. She said she would personally like to see the land continue to be used as an airport, but the decision is not up to her alone.
"My grandson loves to fly. My son loves to fly. It’s not that we don’t want it to be an airport," she said. "It’s not just one person's opinion we have to worry about. There are multiple people involved on the family side."