The Colorado Springs Airport, a city enterprise, will spend more than $38 million over the next five years to add 562 acres of land to Peak Innovation Park the airport’s business center, which financially helps support airport operations and build up surrounding land.
Veranda Vista Investments, a business entity owned by Randy Case II, the descendant of a local real estate development family, and his business partner Bryan Long, sold the land to the city in an agreement passed by the City Council on Oct. 24, which consisted of a partial donation.
The land will boost Peak Innovation Park’s footprint to 2,162 acres. The business park, which consists of industrial, office and retail space, among other uses, aims to bolster airport finances, which must be self-sustaining, according to Federal Aviation Administration requirements.
Peak Innovation Park sells, leases and offers build-to-suit space to businesses. So, instead of spending airport cash solely for immediate use, Troy Stover, director of the business park, said the airport has looked for ways to invest long term.
“That really allows the airport to do some special capital improvements, maybe more advanced technology, that makes it more friendly for customers,” Stover said. “It opens a lot more options and creativity.”
But the airport only wants to spend what it can with the cash it has on hand without incurring debt, Stover said.
That’s also why the recent acquisition consists of a four-phase closing deal that will allow the airport to pay for the land at today’s appraised value over five years, with the first section of 275-acre-section costing $18.3 million. A 4% price escalator will be put on the land bought after 2023, 109 acres of which the airport plans to close on before the end of 2025.
After that, a 7% price escalator will be put on the land for the final plot to be sold in 2027.
At that value, Stover said the airport is receiving a donation from Case and Long of $63,841 per acre. But if the airport pays early, they don’t pay for the escalated price.
“This is a very long-term vision in having the ability to grow with the demands of the military, the demands of the community, the demands of the business world, and the demands of the airport,” Stover said.
But it goes beyond money, he said.
By buying the land surrounding the airport, it creates a buffer between the airfield and residential areas. That helps reduce resident noise concerns and protects surfaces approaching the airport’s runways.
The land also will be key in completing a thoroughfare that will link Marksheffel Boulevard to Powers Boulevard as part of the Peak Innovation Park’s grand vision for the city’s growth — something Case has been keenly aware of in his business.
“Over a period of years, we’ve targeted a process that we look for land in the path of growth,” Case said.
Case and Stover see the long-term value of the land, but it could be at least five years before the sites purchased by the airport would yield monetary return with anticipated leases from infrastructure on the empty fields, which are inhabited now only by wandering antelope.
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