WESTFIELD – Barnes Regional Airport officials are working with proponents of the Pioneer Valley Military and Transportation Museum to establish a lease for land at the municipal airport.
The museum group was seeking to lease a historic hanger built at the airport in 1939 by the Works Program Administration, which has fallen into a dire state of disrepair with an estimate that it will cost $250,000 to refurbish it.
Airport Manager Brian Barnes said that the hanger is not adequate to protect the aircraft and vehicles which would be displayed at the museum.
The museum lease was reviewed and was found not to be valid while airport officials were researching the proposal to flip the lease to the hanger.
Barnes said this morning another undeveloped site has been identified and negotiations are underway to lease the property.
“We found a piece of land and are negotiating a new lease which will include terms to erect new buildings,” Barnes said. “We understand where we want to go with this and hopefully we can get it done.”
The Pioneer Valley Military and Transportation Museum is a 501-C3 corporation which has received several grants and conducted fund-raising events. The group has already generated a business plan to make the museum a financially viable project.
The museum group had approached the Community Preservation Commission in July to seek funding for repairing Hanger #2, stating that they had a 50-year lease which they were trying to transfer to the dilapidated hanger.
The group planned to make a formal application this fall to qualify for CPA funding, but that plan is contingent on a long-term lease.
While preservation of historical or architecturally significant structures is a basic component of the Community Preservation Act, several CPC members raised questions and legal concerns about participating in the project or funding a group that does not own the property which would be improved through CPA funding.
The Airport Commission is restructuring leases of tenants to reflect the fact that most of the legal agreements were put into place before the state issued a ruling that requires the city to tax leased facilities. The commission has been approving offsets agreements while renegotiating new lease pacts which use the taxes in the calculation of the lease rate.
Barnes has also developed a lease template based on appraisals of properties at other airports in the New England region.
Barnes said that he plans to have all tenants under a new lease by the end of the year.
