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Hangar Availability Poll

Poll: What is your local hangar availability.

  • No/short waiting list

    Votes: 53 27.5%
  • 1 - 3 yr waiting list

    Votes: 74 38.3%
  • 4+ yr waiting list

    Votes: 22 11.4%
  • No hangars available, 100% occupancy

    Votes: 44 22.8%

  • Total voters
    193
  • Poll closed .

BillL

Well Known Member
Hangars seem to be short on VAF and other forums. This poll is to see if it is isolated or widespread. The question is why? Is there no profit in new hangar space or is the market demand projected to decline along with airport revenue.

I waited for nearly 4 years and it has been 3 since and no hangars have come open. There are some 50 yr old with dirt floors, but not a concrete floor and individually enclosed.

I found an interesting area for relocation and was told the hangar availability was 5 yrs. That might be half my remaining flying life.
 
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No waitlist, but only 1 hanger available. Its also in a pretty remote place not near any major airport.

Seems like if you live near any major city then that's when hangers are a problem.
 
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I think the recent person on our waiting list who got one had been on the waiting list since 2003.

One person just bought a private T-Hangar for $400,000. Size for one airplane only.
 
Hangar development

Around here it doesn't make economic sense to build a hangar. Our local bureaucrats have made the process so onerous that it takes a year to get a permit. Once it is built you can rent it for about half of what the same space would rent for to a tradesman running a welding, plumbing, electrical etc shop. Investors go for the best return on investment. You also don?t have to put up with FAA and local bureaucrats telling you what you can do in the space. If you happen to be where there is an airport authority, someone that actually likes the airport, it often times makes a big difference. Many small airports in Iowa,Nebraska kansas have cheap hangars but who wants to live there.
 
Hangars seem to be short on VAF and other forums. This poll is to see if it is isolated or widespread. The question is why? Is there no profit in new hangar space or is the market demand projected to decline along with airport revenue.

One issue is the population migration to urban areas. That has placed a huge demand on urban airports. When I was a kid, the airports in the Atlanta area had plenty of available space. Now, you've gotta go 20 miles outside the city to find an airport with available real estate.

Another pressure is real estate - there is always the goal of converting that nice flat space to a mall or a housing development. That's happened to lots of urban airports. On top of that, you have the gravitation of FBO's towards the kerosene crowd.

So old T-hangars are being torn down for housing developments and for conversion to corporate hangars, which are more profitable for everyone. And leave people like us out in the cold...
 
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I am involved in a 15 unit hangar development at Victoria International (CYYJ). The airport authority has rolled out the red carpet for us and making the process painless.

They have come around to the opinion that the lifeblood of an airport is airplanes! I met with the former VP of operations who was not an airplane guy and didn't 'get it'. The new administration is a breath of fresh air.

V
 
You need a consortium of like-minded investors that will put up the capital, even though the return is marginal, because they like airplanes too...
 
I'm fortunate that I currently live in a hanger friendly area, however in the past that wasn't always the case. I found a little face time helped move things along.

The first thing is to go visit the airport and hang out. When I lived on the NE side of Detroit I was told when I called the local airports no hangers were available, but when I drove down there and hung out for a while, suddenly Jack heard that Bob might have some space. Bob didn't, but other Bob did, etc... and within a few days I had a hanger. Local EAA chapters can really help here.

Recently we looked at moving to the Florida coast (it snowed 6 inches today in Wisconsin, can you blame me?) and the same thing, phone calls yielded no hangers. So I went down and talked to one of the airport managers. When he found out I had an RV and a biplane, not another Cherokee or Cirrus, suddenly that wait list went from 2 years to a few months. And he went further by saying, "If you bring your plane down, I'm sure we'll find someplace to put it until a hanger opens up."

RV's are small. They'll fit into corners and under wings. I currently have my 8 stuffed into a single 40' hanger with my C170. I wouldn't want to do this forever, but if it was that or watching some guy's airplane sitting outside I'd make the space.

Be friendly, be creative, be flexible, and be around.

DEM
 
I can only speak for local, but they seem to be their own worst enemy. Just last week we called on a vacant building on airport grounds. (no taxiway to airport). We were told it would have to be aviation related (makes sense), my buddy calling mentioned a friend might want to rent it for airplane part sales, which they responded with, "That won't work".

I think the economy does help though. A few years ago the airport wanted to rent out empty hangars for general storage, now we have over a year waiting list. Plenty of room to build more, but the red tape, short term land lease prevent anybody with a brain and financial common sense to venture into it.
 
At my field, the problem isn't lack of hangars...it's hangars that don't have airplanes in them and the mysterious "waiting list" that never seems to get shorter. I was extremely fortunate to grab a really nice hangar at precisely the right time, but I think it was luck...others have had all sorts of issues getting the hangar owner to move out non-aviation users to make way for aircraft (private owner; many of the hangars on the field are privately owned; there are also county-owned hangars, but the same problem seems to exist with those). People get told there's a waiting list that's years long, all the while hangars are sitting there filled with cars, or a boat, or RVs (the driving kind), furniture, you name it. Even businesses operating on the sly.

Airport management doesn't seem to care about abiding by the Grant Provisions for aeronautical use of hangars and enforcing the rules on either their own county-owned hangars or the privately-owned ones.

I know a few guys who got hangars by starting out nice, and then eventually escalating the issue to the point of intimating that their next call would be to the FAA. But who wants to have to do that?
 
Hangars seem to be short on VAF and other forums. This poll is to see if it is isolated or widespread. The question is why? Is there no profit in new hangar space or is the market demand projected to decline along with airport revenue.

I waited for nearly 4 years and it has been 3 since and no hangars have come open. There are some 50 yr old with dirt floors, but not a concrete floor and individually enclosed.

I found an interesting area for relocation and was told the hangar availability was 5 yrs. That might be half my remaining flying life.


Sort of confused by the poll. Wouldn't any waiting list imply "No hangars available, 100% occupancy"

Hangars are pretty dificult to find in the Northeast where I've looked (Jackman Maine, Bethel Maine, and the greater Boston area). I feel fortunate to have one at a resonable price.
 
Just looked at taking over a vacant hangar/shop, 10,000sqft, where I have a T - hangar I use for transient purposes (second home). The county owned airport will not allow any transfer of ownership. When the ground lease is up, the building becomes county property. Not much incentive to build new.
I am also in the throws of looking at developing a hangar at another city owned airport, but I doubt it will pencil out. At 20-35 cents a sqft, when industrial leases can fetch triple that or more, with not much more investment, it just doesn?t make sense.
Currently, in our area, a hangar type building will cost at least $1 a square foot in construction including land acquisition. Throw out the land acquisition and let?s say you can place a hangar on leased ground for half that (doubtful), but still, it doesn?t pencil. Not even close. Sad.
 
Just looked at taking over a vacant hangar/shop, 10,000sqft, where I have a T - hangar I use for transient purposes (second home). The county owned airport will not allow any transfer of ownership. When the ground lease is up, the building becomes county property. Not much incentive to build new.

And there you go. It is SOP, called a reversion clause. I'm the owner of one such legal agreement. It is a real downer.
 
Luckily a hard working board member was successful in building 10 new T Hangars at my home airport about 40 miles from Kansas City. They?ve been full from completion till now as well as the original 4 T hangars, our waiting list has been 1-3 years.
I was also on the list at a hangar near the outskirts of KC, 15 years before I ever got a call and at 17 years I became #1. I was offered several of the older dirt floor/sliding door hangars and open hangars but never full concrete and a bifold door. I didn?t need the hangar and never have plans to move back but still reluctantly removed my name from the list I had waited so long for.
 
Location, Location, Location

Wilgrove Airport (8A6) in Charlotte, NC just notified its tenants that they are closing and that the tenants have 90 days to get out.

Charlotte only has one small airport left in the county (Mecklenburg) and that is private. CLT and its Class B airspace covers most of the county.

Outside of that, it is a long drive to the surrounding airports and they are all full, other than tiedowns.

Major bummer for them!
 
I blame the lack of hangars at federally-assisted public airports on the FAA. These airports have FAA-approved Airport Master Plans that sometimes show dozens of lots identified for hangars but if you apply to build one, the airport sponsor requires a first-class $100K+ structure, then requires you to agree to surrender it to the sponsor without compensation in 25-30 years. The FAA is fine with this and so, apparently, are most pilots who fail to complain to their congressmen.

Congress could easily write-in legislation that would change the surrender rules just as congress changed the hangar-work rules for experimentals and others a couple years ago. They just have to hear from constituients.
 
Reversion Clause

Our airport is city owned and was gifted to them by the government. It was a WWll auxiliary field. The major development to the airport has been primarily by government funds. There has been no private development in over 50 years. The city will not spend the money to build hangars. Private developers have looked at the feasibility of hangar development and although the numbers work out the reversionary clause has always been the issue that has prevented them moving forward.

At our airport the clause stated that reversion applies at 20 years and an additional 10 years can be had by agreement of both parties at the end of the first term. Additionally change of ownership can only occur with permission of the city. With these provisions there is no incentive for anyone to build hangars and the city cannot understand why and is unwilling to change.

Additionally for those that are have hangar space the leases are only for one year terms and it is not uncommon for a lease to not be renewed if the city thinks they might have a customer they think is better for the airport. As a matter of fact they kicked out a flight school maintenance shop that had been in operation for several years to rent to an air ambulance company. The air ambulance company never occupied the hangar and never paid a dime in rent for a year before their lease was terminated. Another example was three aircraft owners' lease that shared a hangar were not renewed and instead the hangar was rented to customs for a helicopter. The helicopter was in the hangar for maybe two months and has not been seen again. The helicopter was relocated and the government pays for an empty hangar. The city is unwilling to not renew their lease and allow the displaced long term tenants to lease the hangar again.

It seems that local airports around the country that are owned and operated by government entities like cities and counties all seem to have the same or similar issues.
 
I voted in the 1 - 3 yr. wait but it's close to no wait or short wait.
Our EAA Chapter 471 (Abilene, TX) has a long-term lease with the city for 20 T-hangars plus an 80'x100' community hangar that'll fit four to six planes depending on size. We currently pay $795/year for either a T-hangar or community hangar space. I've been told that we're lucky to have such a good deal. But we do work at it by highlighting the things we do in the community ie: Young Eagles, fly-ins, chapter-sponsored events, etc. The main thing we have going for us is a fairly active aviation community helped by the proximity of Dyess AFB and cooperative airport management.
On the down-side, we do get some that just want to be in the "Cheap Hangar Society". You can probably figure who those are.
 
hangar do diligence

We have a hangar out at Meadowlake near Colorado Springs. And the politics are such that the county / building department hate the airport. New people move in and complain and it is crowded and pretty much a free for all, which is what I really like. But around the county the politics are difficult, sometimes the rule that stops things is fire rating your building. Sprinklers usually kill the deal. A 1 hour rating with block or drywall is doable, but keep in mind that it is an officials call to make the rule not necessarily "written in the code". Sometimes it is negotiable by less square footage like independently fire rating the front corners of a box hangar for example. That would make the "aircraft storage sq ft smaller".

A lot of airports have a waiting list and if you can find one where the cost works to build / rents it could be golden.

But all this to say the do diligence is even more important. My recommendation is to get confirmation from zoning first, if that is a go then get fire approval. If that is a go then make sure you are within the FAA rules of slope from center line to your buildings height. If you are good with all that most any other hurdle will be smaller.

Hope that helps. When you are ready to figure a cost you can design a box hangar online and get a real price and print out plans on https://www.rapidsetbuildings.com
Or give the office a call and hopefully we can help you through the next hurdle. We need patients to sell hangars!

Thanks, Larry
 
I think it boils down to management of the airport. Government or otherwise.
For years at the local airport people literally died on the hangar wait list. They kept a copy of the list posted on the board in the terminal and the person at number one had been on the list for 15 years kind of thing and if your scrolled through it you could find names of people who had died. Old manager retires and a new office staff comes in and magically the list starts to move. We are on a second new administration now and they are energized and excited to promote the airport.
 
same story at our port

At my field, the problem isn't lack of hangars...it's hangars that don't have airplanes in them and the mysterious "waiting list" that never seems to get shorter. I was extremely fortunate to grab a really nice hangar at precisely the right time, but I think it was luck...others have had all sorts of issues getting the hangar owner to move out non-aviation users to make way for aircraft (private owner; many of the hangars on the field are privately owned; there are also county-owned hangars, but the same problem seems to exist with those). People get told there's a waiting list that's years long, all the while hangars are sitting there filled with cars, or a boat, or RVs (the driving kind), furniture, you name it. Even businesses operating on the sly.

Airport management doesn't seem to care about abiding by the Grant Provisions for aeronautical use of hangars and enforcing the rules on either their own county-owned hangars or the privately-owned ones.

I know a few guys who got hangars by starting out nice, and then eventually escalating the issue to the point of intimating that their next call would be to the FAA. But who wants to have to do that?

same story, I'd say 25% even know if the door still works. Proud to say the most flown planes are the Experimentals Tailwind, Sonex and RV (except for the FBO trainer planes)
 
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At KHIO about 25% of the hangers are used for 100% storage. Some others will have an old non-airworthy carcass in them to meet the letter of law. Only 1 or 2 hangers a year come up for sale or rent. The actual sales price of T-Hanger is typically less the 30K, but people ask much much more. Rents are all over the place 350 to 600 a month being typical.
 
Cost of building against the return

Unless you want to have a hangar for yourself and are willing to subsidize the cost, it boils down to the cost to build the hangar and its relationship to the return you can get for your investment.

As a developer, I have to look at cash needed and see what return I will get for that cash. For hangars, except in limited locations you will need a larger % of cash to loan. There are better places to put cash and have non-recourse loans that will make you money.

But, I own a hangar. It is at a small airport that the community realizes the airport is a good asset. KEUL. It is not an investment, but a cost I am willing to pay to build and keep my plane inside.

I have looked in Michigan where I live now and there are hangars available - even at the main airport in Lansing for reasonable ($150 mo) rent.
 
Same here a little further north in Michigan. $150/month for a T hangar. Last time I checked KMBS had spots in huge heated hangars and the airport will tow your plane out and put it away--I think it was $200/month for a spot.

Bought my 1400 sq ft T hangar (end unit) with heat and bi-fold door for $11K at 3CM. I think that the ones with slider doors go for about $8K when open.

A person built a 2-3 plane hangar at KIKW (Midland) about 8 yrs ago for $80-90K. It had heated floors and a couple of rooms in the back--I think a kitchen and workshop.

I would not be flying seeing some of the prices in this thread.
 
A T hangar in town here goes from 175-250k plus taxes, utilities and upkeep to the city since it sits on a lease. 1 or 2 go for sale a year. Renting doesn't happen.
The other airport in town has business hangars only as you'll be upside down before you break ground for a hangar due to red tape.

I drive an hour for mine and got lucky to find one for rent at all.

There's a good bunch of private airports with hangar homes on them, but they start at 600k. In town they'll 1mil +.
 
My home field, Foley Alabama, has 40 hanger spaces. Sixteen of them are new in the last year. I received a text from a friend with a plane that moved to this area a couple months ago. He told me the city informed him he's number 35 on the list!
 
If there were a truly fast way to cover your plane on the ramp, it would probably sell really well. Those covers just take so long to put on and take off.
 
This poll really has no value in itself because it will all depends on where you live and supply and demand. Where I am at in Gladwin MI at KGDW, we have several hangers available that are fairly new, good electricity, (lots of amps available on the panels), and a really nice runway. $95 -$125 per month. It is a homebuilder friendly facility, and the rules are pretty relaxed as far as storage goes. My build buddy lives in Venice Florida and hangers his Cozy MKIV there. The rules there are very limiting and strictly enforced, though it is a nice facility and reasonably priced rent considering. Your lucky to be able to run a SMALL air-compressor with the single 20 amp outlet if you have the ceiling single light on!
 
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Sounds like EAA and AOPA should get involved to help remove some of the government red-tape at the city/county airports. I know the ones in my area have the space for many hangars to be built.
 
The problem at the last two airports i've been based at is the lack of enforcement of "aircraft related uses" for the hangars. As others have indicated, it's common for 25% of the hangars to be chock full of everything *but* an airplane. Once the car guys realized that they could rent storage space inside a locked gate on federally-protected property, for 1/2 to 1/3 of the price of renting a storage locker, it was open season for a while.

Recently the local tax authority has been trying to ramp up property tax assessments by comparing the properties to... Storage lockers and other commercial space off-airport. Never mind that most of the hangars are unfinished, unheated, not even 100% waterproof, poorly secured, etc. $100K for a 40 year old building that's on a 5 year renewing lease is not uncommon. Prices have doubled in the last five years and for no reason.
 
It's a 2 year wait list at several fields near me. Maybe if they kicked out the microbreweries and start-ups that are taking over all the cheap open-floorplan buildings around my local airport there would be a lot more space for the actual planes.

Our city's GA airport does allow you to build your own hangar and will give you the space to do it, but they get to take it over after 20 years.
 
....My build buddy lives in Venice Florida and hangers his Cozy MKIV there. The rules there are very limiting and strictly enforced, though it is a nice facility and reasonably priced rent considering. Your lucky to be able to run a SMALL air-compressor with the single 20 amp outlet if you have the ceiling single light on!
That's because I'm stealing his power! LOL :D (I think I'm in the hangar next to him) The enforcement seems to ebb and flow with the managers. But, amazingly the prices haven't gone up since the economic downturn.
 
Hangars here in the Los Angeles basin.

I'm the President of our airport association here at KEMT in the San Gabriel Valley. I did a hangar survey across the basin because we find that the LA Co. aviation div. tends to over charge their LA Co. airports by about 25%. In other words an average T-hangar here runs us about $450 while the closest non-LA Co. airport is at $350. We also found that because of this outrages pricing 4 out of the 5 LA Co. airports have major vacancies, in fact they are 20% to 40% vacant, while every airport other than the 4 airports mentioned above are full with waiting lists.

We also found that these 4 LA Co. airports by FAA rules are allowed to fill these empty hangars with non-aviation as long as there's no aviation demand. We point out that the LA Co. aviation div. cause's the non-aviation demand by keeping the rents to high. No the LA Co. div. is allowed to charge street value on the Sqft of these hangars which can be as much as 98% higher rents. Mind you these non-aviators don't mind paying this because where are you going to get this size storage without a lease, 24-7 access and in a guarded area ? Now with this all said the LA Co. aviation div. has no incentive to try and get aircraft into these hangars because they don't get as much money as non-aviation brings in.

So this is our on going battle with the LA Co. Aviation div. that loves collecting as much money as they can so they can go on a spending spree. By the way that 5th Co. airport is priced like all the non-LA Co. airports because they claim it's in the dessert and lo and behold it's full with aviation.

So if you don't mind paying premium prices we have hangars available. And we are still fighting the LA Co. on their pricing. So what I would say to you is find out if there's anyone just using a hangar for pure non-aviation storage as most airports are suppose to allow aircraft first and if they have to they need to kick out the non-aviator.
 
Private owned, public use airport seems to work great. No red tape, airport owner builds more hangars when demand requires more hangars. Owner builds more hangars if someone wants to buy a hangar. I have owned my hangar there for 20 years. In 20 years airport owner has put up 25-30 50x50 or larger new hangars and 15-20 t-hangars.

Just have to find someone with lots of money dumb enough to want to own and run an airport. Our airport owner truly is proving the adage “how do you make a small fortune in aviation? You start with a big fortune.” Luckily he loves aviation.
 
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I got real lucky in KATW

When I starting getting serious about a purchase I started hunting for a hanger. None to be found, so I was put on the bottom of a waiting list of 10...they said it could be years before I get one.

Talking to a few folks at other fields yielded limited results, all with disadvantages...long drives, lack of services, etc. Then after a couple weeks a Air Wisconsin vacated a large county owned hanger near the FBO and said they would rent it out as shared space immediately, so I bit and looked to sign a lease for about the same price as the t-hanger ($200-ish/month). A week later, and before signing the shared-hanger lease, a t-hanger became available and everyone above me on the list passed on it! :D I had a hanger! I needed an airplane thought! A couple weeks go by and I'm getting closer to an aircraft purchase and airport admin calls to advise me of another t-hanger opening. Are they not all the same? Nope! This one is south facing so its warmer in the winter and ice/snow clears up fast after they plow/broom the ramp.

So short story long...KATW has a waiting list but it was really quick for me (3 weeks) last fall 2019.
 
I'm the President of our airport association here at KEMT in the San Gabriel Valley. I did a hangar survey across the basin because we find that the LA Co. aviation div. tends to over charge their LA Co. airports by about 25%. In other words an average T-hangar here runs us about $450 while the closest non-LA Co. airport is at $350. We also found that because of this outrages pricing 4 out of the 5 LA Co. airports have major vacancies, in fact they are 20% to 40% vacant, while every airport other than the 4 airports mentioned above are full with waiting lists.

We also found that these 4 LA Co. airports by FAA rules are allowed to fill these empty hangars with non-aviation as long as there's no aviation demand. We point out that the LA Co. aviation div. cause's the non-aviation demand by keeping the rents to high. No the LA Co. div. is allowed to charge street value on the Sqft of these hangars which can be as much as 98% higher rents. Mind you these non-aviators don't mind paying this because where are you going to get this size storage without a lease, 24-7 access and in a guarded area ? Now with this all said the LA Co. aviation div. has no incentive to try and get aircraft into these hangars because they don't get as much money as non-aviation brings in.

So this is our on going battle with the LA Co. Aviation div. that loves collecting as much money as they can so they can go on a spending spree. By the way that 5th Co. airport is priced like all the non-LA Co. airports because they claim it's in the dessert and lo and behold it's full with aviation.

So if you don't mind paying premium prices we have hangars available. And we are still fighting the LA Co. on their pricing. So what I would say to you is find out if there's anyone just using a hangar for pure non-aviation storage as most airports are suppose to allow aircraft first and if they have to they need to kick out the non-aviator.

I'm at another of those LA Co airports...every month, the county commission reports the % of hangars occupied and what % are non-aviation use (check the minutes of the county commission meetings). The figures given are absurd...reporting 95% aviation-use, when you can look around with your own eyes and see that's not true. For one, I think they're only counting *county-owned* hangars, not privately-owned ones (e.g., the hangars around me, all privately-owned, are about 50% non-aviation, just from seeing who has what inside them when they're open).

It's a farce, and yet if you go ask the FBO for a hangar, they'll tell you flat-out there's a years-long waitlist, because they don't want to evict the higher-paying non-aviation users. And the airport management doesn't do s**t about it.
 
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