An aviation operation will get some help with its continued growth.

Portland Redevelopment Commission on Thursday approved providing $75,000 to Portland Economic Development Corp. to be passed on to Sonrise Aviation for its planned construction of a new hangar at Portland Municipal Airport.

Hal Tavzel of Sonrise (he also works as the airport manager) originally approached the redevelopment commission with a request for funding assistance in July and returned Thursday to present his plans in greater detail. He told the commission he would like to construct a new 80-foot-by-80-foot hangar that would allow him to store four additional planes.

Sonrise is already in the process of constructing a 25-foot-by-70-foot addition that will connect its two current hangars.

“I want to build my business here,” said Tavzel, noting that he started locally with one plane in 2011.

The business currently has 17 employees with an average of six to eight pilots at a given time. It owns six planes and Tavzel is looking at purchasing another. He also manages several planes. Because of a current lack of space, some of his planes are stored at Randolph County Airport in Winchester. He said his goal is to bring all of the aircraft he owns and manages to Portland.

“So we’re expanding our business,” he said. “We’ve outgrown our facility.”

Sonrise, Tavzel explained, provides a variety of charter flight services, including transporting samples for the Mayo Clinic, flying mechanics to larger commercial airports, taking business individuals to sites in the region and flying cargo. It also offers flying lessons.

He also noted that the new hangar would have a 20-foot door, which would allow it to accommodate jets. (With the recent completion of a runway extension at the airport, it is now able to handle jet traffic.)

Tavzel estimated his company would purchase an additional 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of fuel monthly with more planes at the facility if the new hangar is constructed.

Answering questions from the redevelopment commission and Portland Mayor John Boggs, Tavzel said he plans to meet with an architect this month and hopes to start on construction in the spring. The goal is to have the new hangar ready for use by about October. (The project would also require working with the city’s aviation board on taxiways to the new hangar, which would need Federal Aviation Administration approval.)

He said the increased activity allowed by a new hangar would create two new jobs immediately and likely seven or eight jobs long-term. It would help him retain employees, he added, by allowing them the opportunity to fly larger aircraft.

The new hangar would be paid off in 10 years, Tavzel said. (He has a 50-year lease, after which the building would become property of the city.)

Redevelopment commission president Rusty Inman told his fellow commission members there is $75,000 remaining in the “bucket” the group had set aside for projects at the airport. Joe Johnston, Mike Simons and Inman, absent Dave Teeter and Reda Theurer-Miller, then unanimously approved that amount to go to Portland Economic Development Corp. (Redevelopment commissions are not allowed to directly loan or grant money to businesses, so the economic development corporation is acting as the go-between in this case.)
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