Spokane International Airport lands lease deal with new aviation service center

Spokane International Airport is getting a new tenant.

The Spokane Airport Board on Thursday authorized a lease agreement with Marathon FBO Partners GEG, LLC – a subsidiary of the Florida-based aviation investment company SAR Trilogy Management – to establish Aero Center Spokane, a full service fixed-base operator.

Aero Center Spokane’s services will include aircraft fueling, office/hangar rentals, line services and maintenance support to the area’s aviation community, the airport and SAR-T announced in a joint statement Thursday. Aero Center Spokane also plans to partner with local businesses for other amenities including aircraft management and charter services, flight training and aircraft sales.

Aero Center Spokane is expected to be fully operational in 12 to 18 months. With the deal, Aero Center Spokane will become SAR-T’s third full-service fixed-base operation in the country, with others in Wilmington, North Carolina; and Lakeland, Florida.

“We had perused the entirety of the U.S. marketplace for sole-sourced locations that had the level of activity, both commercial and general aviation, that could knowingly support on a sustained basis a competitive (fixed-base operator) on the field,” Michael Scheeringa, managing director and co-founder of SAR-T, said Thursday, “and Spokane met that threshold.”

Sanjay Aggarwal, SAR-T’s other co-founder and managing director, added in a statement, “We believe the Aero Center’s customer-focused and full-service business model will be appealing to the entire (Spokane International Airport) community.”

Over at least the next year, Aero Center Spokane will build a 5,200-square-foot terminal connected to a 15,000-square-foot aircraft storage hangar as well as a separate 10,000-square-foot aircraft maintenance hangar on 1.86 acres of leased land on West Pilot Drive, according to Thursday’s statement.

During construction , which is not expected to exceed the 18 months, Marathon will pay land rent amounting to $9,728.64 per year for 81,072 square feet. Once complete, the land rent will scale over the next five years until capping at $21,076.72 per year, with opportunities built in to review the price based on changes in the Consumer Price Index or appraised fair market rental rates, Airport CEO Larry Krauter said.

In addition, Marathon will pay an estimated $22,271.78 per year for 82,488 square feet of parking apron.

The initial term of the lease is 25 years.

Krauter said Thursday the airport’s master plan involves the expansion of fixed-based operator, corporate and general aviation facilities in the airport’s southeast quadrant.

“Increasing services and hangar capacity at Spokane International Airport for general and corporate aviation users is an important factor in supporting economic growth in our region. Not all business and personal travel is carried out by scheduled passenger airlines,” Krauter said in a statement. “There is a significant market here for business and personal use of general aviation and corporate aviation aircraft.”