Consultants Recommend Closing Brainerd’s Crosswind Runway to Fund Upgrades; Full Closure Deemed Not Feasible

Consultants who conducted the state-funded Brainerd Airport study told the Finance, Revenue and Bonding informational hearing that the most practical near-term path to strengthen the airport’s finances is to close the crosswind runway (Runway 11‑29) and redevelop about 17–18 acres for light industrial and flex space, while keeping the primary runway and the Connecticut AeroTech School in place.

The recommendation — labeled Scenario 2 in the consultants’ analysis — emerged after detailed market, environmental and financial modeling. "Our recommendation is to is option 2," Thomas Madden, a principal author of the BFJ Planning report, told the committee. The study modeled four alternatives and found Scenario 2 produced the highest internal rate of return (IRR) and the shortest payback, while full closure for a large residential and mixed‑use redevelopment showed negative or multi‑decade payback under current conditions.

Why it matters: Brainerd sits on roughly 200 acres adjacent to the Connecticut River in a city with constrained market fundamentals, substantial environmental and geotechnical challenges and high public‑safety uses on site. The consultants flagged the site’s CT DEEP environmental‑justice index as a 10/10 — the highest score for pollution…