Upson County airport director seeks board blessing for three-bay corporate hangar

The Thomaston-Upson County Airport director briefed the Upson County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 13 about plans to proceed to phase two of a corporate hangar development that would add a single three-bay, 70-by-75-foot building for corporate aircraft.

Airport Director Mitch Elleby told the board that the airport obtained a low construction bid from Pound Clark of Columbus and had three customers committed to the hangar (including AirEvac and a Pilatus PC-12 based by a Forsyth company) with more prospects waiting. He said the project financing is structured as a 20-year loan that the tenants will pay off; the FAA’s non-primary entitlement program provides roughly $150,000 per year that can help pay debt service in many years but cannot be counted on every year if the funds must be used for airside safety or maintenance.

"We are ready to move to phase 2 of the hangar development project," Elleby told the commissioners, and he asked only for their blessing because the project will be paid by the tenants and private financing, with FAA reimbursement as available.

Elleby said the hangar expansion would grow based aircraft counts and strengthen eligibility for discretionary federal grants when thresholds are met, potentially improving future airport funding opportunities.

The board did not allocate county funds for the hangar at the Jan. 13 meeting and took no formal action beyond hearing the update.

What happens next: Airport staff will continue procurement and tenant leasing under the outlined financing approach; commissioners gave a verbal blessing but did not adopt an ordinance or commit local funds during this session.