Lawrence council authorizes city to buy airport hangar for Greater Lawrence Tech, 7‑1 vote

The Lawrence City Council on Jan. 6 voted 7‑1 to authorize the city to purchase a hangar at Lawrence Municipal Airport for $975,000 on behalf of the Greater Lawrence Technical School (GLTS), with GLTS agreeing to repurchase the facility within five months and to reimburse the city for any additional holding costs.

Councilor Fenton moved the measure and it incorporated conditions requiring the property to appraise at $975,000 or higher and for the airport commission to approve the sale before the transaction proceeds. The motion also authorized the council president to represent the council as needed during negotiations. The motion passed following a roll‑call vote in which Councilor LaPlante voted no; Councilor Del Rosario was absent.

Superintendent John LaBois told the council the seller, identified in the record as Bob Davis, has other buyers and will sell quickly unless the city commits. LaBois said the available hangar is directly adjacent to GLTS’s existing facility, includes heating and air conditioning, bathroom facilities and more classroom space, and that converting the school’s current hangar to the same standard would cost several hundred thousand dollars. “We only we purchased this hanger knowing we had to upgrade, but it was the only hangar available at the time we were trying to get approval from the FAA,” LaBois said, noting that Falcon Air provided market comparisons valuing the new hangar as high as $1.2 million and valuing GLTS’s current hangar at roughly $300,000–$350,000.

City senior advisor Octavian Spanner and the council’s finance staff told councilors the city can provide a short‑term loan from available funds to close the purchase, and that a memorandum from the city’s chief administrative and financial officer (CAFO) will document how the city will track any reimbursable holding costs and interest. LaBois said GLTS intends to use its excess and deficiency account plus proceeds from selling its existing hangar to cover most costs.

Councilors pressed for safeguards. Councilor LaPlante and others said they wanted an appraisal and explicit contract language making the purchase contingent on approval by the airport commission. Francisco Urena, the airport manager, joined remotely and said the airport commission had not yet voted but was scheduled to meet Jan. 15; he described the facility as roughly 5,000 square feet and said the commission’s chair was favorably inclined based on the airport’s standards for aviation use.

The motion as restated on the record required an appraisal of at least $975,000, allowed renegotiation or withdrawal if the appraisal came in lower, and required airport commission approval. The council recessed briefly for staff to confer, then returned for a roll‑call vote that carried the motion.

Next steps include finalizing purchase and sale paperwork with the appraisal and commission contingencies, a memorandum from the CAFO outlining the city’s tracking of holding costs, and consideration of any additional contractual protections before the closing. The council scheduled its next regular meeting for Jan. 20.

The airport commission’s vote and the completed appraisal will determine whether the purchase proceeds to closing; if either contingency fails, the purchase would not move forward under the terms approved by the council.