OWLS HEAD — The Knox County Regional Airport and residents of Owls Head are benefitting from the sale of property belonging to Owls Head Transportation Museum, and all three entities are excited about the transaction.

On Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, representatives from the museum, the Town, and the County took one last collective look inside one of the hangars that will soon spread finances three different ways.

OHTM purchased three structures on Benner Lane from Rockland Airport Partners, LLC in September of 2006. At one point prior to OHTM’s ownership, MBNA owned the property and referred to it as the Dowling Hangars. In total, the hangars have been in use for nearly 40 years.

Each structure contains six hangars, which OHTM has been using to store collection items, seasonal displays, and during museum automobile auctions, staff stored airplanes at the Benner location so that they could fit more autos into the auction. 

“It’s been a wonderful, wonderful thing to have,” said Kevin Bedford, Executive Director of the Owls Head Transportation Museum. “But, its distance from the museum, across the airport runways, or all the way around....It’s proven to be not an ideal situation for us.

“On the other hand,” Bedford continued, “our good friends at the airport are right here.”

After more than 16 months of discussions, and a County Commission unanimous vote of support, the Benner Lane Hangar Complex has been sold to Knox County for $750,000. Because of the museum’s nonprofit status, the property was non-taxable during OHTM’s ownership. Now, the residents of Owls Head will accrue property taxes for that 1.7-acre location.

If private owners are looking at $50 - 70,000 investments in upgrading the hangars, the doors – that increases the value, according to Knox County Regional Airport  manager Jeremy Shaw. When those owners change hand, there’s more investment into the infrastructure such as new roofs and insulation.

“It’s kind of a perpetual revenue generator for the County,” he said.

The County’s intent is to sell the hangars to private airport businesses, and enter into ground lease agreements with those owners. In doing so, the County will also benefit from the excise taxes. According to Shaw, the County expects to recover the full amount of the purchase price through the OHTM sale, as well as recover $150,000 of the land value from the FAA.

“If this were purchased by a private individual, the airport would have no control on what they did with the noise, what type of business, whatever….This kind of puts a safeguard in place for the community,” said Shaw.

OHTM is incorporating a capital fundraising campaign of almost $10 million to be used for a new state-of-the-art education venue, followed by a complete renovation of the current museum. To get to that point, which is still years away, the first priority is to build a new storage facility closer to home to house the display items while the other buildings go through their changes. The money for the new storage hangar, similar in square footage and a month or so away from completion, is coming from the Benner sale.

“It’s a win for us,” said Bedford. “We’re just really, really pleased that it’s taking place.”

Bedford thanked Shaw, as well as County Commissioner Andrew Hart, Owls Head Select Board Chair Gordon Page, Rockland, Owls Head, and OHTM trustees, including Bud Woodworth, John Harris, and John Karp, who attended the Dec. 12 check presentation.

Shaw call the sale a reinvestment into the airport community. The Benner Hangar Complex is on land once owned by the County. But when the third runway was closed, the gift of the land occurred.

Now, “hangar space is at a premium,” he said. “Airports are running into lack of space. In general, aviation’s expanding, and with hangars already existing, close proximity to the runway is very important.”

For the last three years, the Knox County Regional Airport has been at 100% capacity for hangars, and a number of individuals are ready to purchase the buildings.

For more information about the Owls Head Transportation Museum Capital Campaign:  https://www.ohtmcampaign.org/

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com