The Presque Isle City Council has authorized the construction of a $5.1 million hangar on the campus of the city’s airport, intended to be part of an aerospace research park under development at the site.
The council made a series of decisions regarding the hangar out of an executive session at its July meeting. The information was made public this week in meeting minutes issued prior to the council’s Aug. 5 meeting.
Councilors unanimously authorized City Manager Sonja Eyler to enter into a design and build agreement with Fairfield contractor Sheridan Construction totaling more than $4.5 million, along with a loan agreement for project financing.
The building will be identical to another research hangar currently under construction, and will be built after that hangar is completed.
The newly approved hangar will be financed through a 20-year loan with a 4% interest rate worth more than $5.1 million for total development costs. The loan will be repaid by lease revenues from airport hangars, city public information officer Kim Smith said Wednesday.
A current airport tenant will relocate to the hangar, Smith said, though she did not name the tenant.
Valt Enterprizes, a company that develops hypersonic delivery systems, is the only current tenant of the park. The company has operated out of the airport’s general aviation area, near the north end of the runway, since 2021.
The park is designed to attract additional aerospace investment to northern Maine, which state and local officials believe will be attractive to companies because of its vast swaths of unencumbered air space.
At a groundbreaking ceremony last summer, Alan Lambert, the director of aviation for the Maine Department of Transportation, told an assembled crowd that the industry could add over $1 billion to Maine’s GDP.
“[This] really marks the effort to bring the new space economy to our great state,” Lambert said.
An official at the ceremony estimated the cost of the park to be $6 million, slightly higher than the cost of this singular hangar.
The official may have only been referring to the cost of the first phase of the project, Airport Director Scott Wardwell said Wednesday. That phase included two streets, utilities and a 12,500-square-foot building.
The aerospace park is in the master planning stage, Wardwell said. When its master plan is presented to the City Council, it will include a cost estimate.
Wardwell has previously said the park is intended to house 11 buildings with more than 420,000 square feet of hangar space and employ more than 400 engineers and scientists.