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Port authority approves agreement with Ross Development to acquire former cargo building
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
In a whirlwind three-hour meeting with two executive sessions, the Western Reserve Port Authority approved one project that resolves a long-standing controversy involving the former Davis Air Cargo Building.
The authority Tuesday also authorized negotiations to bring daily air service to Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and approved other projects potentially costing more than $1 million.
The WRPA, which is in danger of being dissolved and is down to five members because of three recent resignations, approved a lease with YNG West LLC, which is Ross Development Co. of Cortland, for owner Brian Ross to use the former cargo building as a corporate hangar.
Ross Development, which has developed 3 million square feet of commercial property in Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and British Columbia, Canada, already has two aircraft at the airport.
The $1 million former air-cargo building on Ridge Road airport’s west side has been mired in controversy since 2009, when the port authority approved a ground lease with Millwood Inc. to use the building for its industrial packaging business.
The Federal Aviation Administration found problems with the lease because the building was next to an $11.5 million runway apron built with FAA money, and Millwood wasn’t going to use it for aviation-related purposes.
So the port authority bought it back from Millwood and tried to market it to air-cargo companies, but there was no interest, so Dan Dickten, the airport’s director of aviation, looked for a solution elsewhere.
Ross Development will not only own the building in about 81/2 years through assumption of the port authority’s loan payments, but Ross also plans to add on 12,000 square feet to the building.
Millwood has since moved its operations to another building on Ridge Road, and Ross Development wants to begin using the building as soon as July 1, Dickten said.
After the failed attempt to land daily air service through United Airlines, Dickten went to a company called Aerodynamics Inc. of Kennesaw, Ga., and Beachwood, Ohio, which works with airlines to arrange service.
Dickten said he doesn’t know what airline Aerodynamics will be working with or what airport the airline would be using, but the goal is to get an airline that would provide similar service as he sought through United.
Dickten said he’ll keep details of this project “close to the vest” as a result of suggestions that he oversold the United project.
The board also authorized Dickten to award a consulting contract to Johnson Controls to analyze the airport’s generator, lighting, and substation. The three items together would cost $960,000 — half of which would be paid for with energy savings with the rest coming from loans.