Development deal would bolster corporate jet fleet

A development lease agreement now on the taxiway at Miami Executive Airport would land the county $67.2 million in developer-funded improvements, a $5 million museum building and two common-use ramps, as well as $41 million or more in rents over 40 years.

The county’s Airport and Economic Development Committee is looking this week at whether to recommend the agreement, which would add more corporate jet facilities, to the county commission at its Sept. 4 meeting.

Would-be developer Ocean Aviation TMB is new to the county’s airport system but documents say its operators have more than 70 years of experience running fixed-base operations such as the one it contemplates in west Miami-Dade.

Ocean Aviation plans “to construct a series of aviation-use and non-aviation use facilities on 31.9 acres,” says a memo to commissioners from county Chief Operating Officer Jimmy Morales.

Over a three-phase development period, Ocean Aviation would build at its own expense a fuel farm, a temporary and permanent terminal, office and retail space, 27 aircraft hangars and a community aircraft hangar with a total of 225,000 square feet to handle Gulfstream G700 jet types.

A county web site says the airport at 12800 SW 145th Ave., which is a reliever airport for Miami International Airport, already has more than 160 hangar bays to cater to the corporate jet boom run by multiple other fixed-base operators.

To add space to the airport, the county commission last month approved spending $4 million to buy 20 adjacent acres west of Miami Executive Airport for 53% above appraised value.

Beyond the developer-funded airport improvements, Ocean Aviation would build a museum to accommodate the move to the site from an aviation department building of the Wings Over Miami Air Museum.

A lease would hinge on the aviation department’s ability to expand airfield capabilities to meet the criteria required by Ocean Aviation’s aircraft clients and to construct a taxilane further to the east to accommodate relocation of existing tenants, Mr. Morales told commissioners.

“All of the proposed improvements will help to meet the expanding demand for high quality general aviation facilities at [Miami Executive Airport] and facilitate the airport’s future growth,” Mr. Morales wrote.

Ocean Aviation’s rent is to be evaluated each year by an independent appraiser and raised “if appropriate,” Mr. Morales said. Current rents are 30 cents a square foot for aviation-use lands and 8 cents for non-aviation use.