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PRICEY PARKING

Key Air Takes Aim At The Affluent

Regulatory dispute halts private aviation company’s expansion

By Keith Griffin

Special to the Hartford Business Journal

05/12/08

For some in the state, business is booming. In fact, Key Air is running out of room to park its customers’ pricey properties at its Waterbury-Oxford Airport hangar, which houses 20 planes, jets and helicopters.

Keith Griffin

Brad Kost, CEO of Key Air, sits at the controls of a corporate jet.

The company is looking to expand its facility, and Key Air officials say such an expansion could bring another $600 to $800 million worth of jets parked at the Waterbury-Oxford Airport. Key Air manages private aviation and charter services.

In a move to market its services to those who can afford a private jet or helicopter, Key Air hosted its Excellence and Opulence Event last week. The occasion featured gourmet appetizers, top-of-the-line aviation equipment and the world’s most expensive motor car, the Bugatti Veyron, worth $1.3 million.

The festivities, costing “several hundred thousand dollars,” drew about 1,000 to Key Air’s 200,000-square-foot hangar at Waterbury-Oxford Airport.

The marketing event was designed so the affluent will spend money in Connecticut for their aviation services instead of heading to New York or New Jersey to park their jets.

Expansion Goals

“We’ve put $35 million into facilities to attract this type of business into Connecticut,” said Brad Kost, CEO of Key Air.

Keith Griffin

Helicopters are among the pricey aircraft parked at Key Air's Waterbury-Oxford Airport Hangar.

It is poised to pump another $20 million into its facilities if it could get a lease on the additional acreage. “We’re trying to create 400 jobs for the state,” Kost said. “The facilities we built created over 600 jobs from the industry.” Key Air directly employs 147 at its local facility.

Kost said the 22-year old company’s acquisition by a private equity group last year gives it the “financial bandwidth” for its expansion locally and in Minnesota, Florida and California.

He said that his company’s impact on the economy could be even better if the state Office of Policy and Management (OPM) would approve Key Air’s expansion plans at the state-owned airport. The company is running out of room to park its customers’ property.

The town of Oxford and the state Department of Economic and Community Development, however, are “100 percent in favor” of the expansion.

Herman Schuler, Oxford’s economic development director is puzzled by OPM’s actions. “I don’t know why the state would want to start all over again, considering all they’re doing is providing a ground lease,” he said. What’s even more puzzing, he added, is that the project dovetails into the airport’s master plan of development.

Patrick O’Brien of OPM’s Bureau of Assets Management wasn’t available for comment before deadline.

Key Air’s outside counsel, Coleman Levy of Levy & Droney in Farmington, said OPM has rejected a previously signed lease for more land because it doesn’t view the project as an expansion, but rather a new development.

The company is creating high-paying positions, he argued, adding that these aren’t minimum-wage jobs. Schuler agrees. “Key Air is a major generator of jobs,” he said, adding, “And the state is jobs driven. I hope the state would be supportive, not only of the jobs creation, but the business development Key Air provides.”

Levy said the airport’s proximity to New York and Boston is a “great opportunity to develop a new industry in Connecticut.”