Hi, I'm Randy Corman, Renton City Councilmember. I am the most senior member of the council, currently in my 25th year (I have been elected seven times). I pay for this website with my own funds. Please recognize that all views expressed in my journal entries are my own, and not the official position of Renton City Council, other councilmembers, nor the city of Renton. Thanks for reading.
This morning Mr. Anderson met the Airport manager at the Renton Municipal Airport office, shown here. The Airport manager keeps the office locked, and insists on appointments to meet with tenants. Tom had an appointment this morning.
Update 4/16/2024: A few hours after I posted this blog entry, Mr. Anderson was notified his employees’ credentials would be reinstated. Their passes worked this morning.
I received a phone call from Tom Anderson, President of Landing Gear Works, explaining that his employees have been locked out of accessing his east and west hangars. Their electronic credentials will no longer give them access.
Mr. Anderson has been working all day to get the credentials restored. According to Mr. Anderson, the Airport manager gave Mr. Anderson the brush-off this morning, saying the manager needed to talk to the city attorney and would get back to him in a couple of hours. Then he dodged Mr. Anderson’s calls until mid-afternoon. At that point he said the credentials would not be forthcoming.
The Mayor issued a statement on Friday about the Renton Airport which focussed on specific subjects I had been covering in my blog. I’m not sure who prepared the statement for him, or if he did it himself, but it has numerous errors in it. If it was prepared by individuals making decisions at our airport, it unfortunately validates concerns I’ve heard voiced about a shortage of experience and engagement in Renton’s airport leadership.
I have reviewed the Mayor’s statement paragraph-by-paragraph, and inserted my comments in bold or in blue or purple underline. My blue or purple underlined comments link to more detailed blog entries, which in turn link to the source data (like leases, emails, documents, etc).
The Mayor’s words are in italics.
_______________________________________
April 12, 2024
Good afternoon, Renton –
I’d like to take a moment to address a few points of interest I’ve heard garnering a lot of attention around the Renton Municipal Airport. There’s a lot of speculation out there, and some misinformation – and the fastest way to address that is to focus on the facts.
A primary source of misinformation is this Mayoral statement. If someone wrote it for the Mayor, they need some retraining. I’ll respond with accurate blog posts that include proof.
1. Is there a brand-new business coming into the Renton Municipal Airport?
One of our longterm existing airport tenants (Pro Flight Aviation) has sold their existing business to a new operator (Dark Horse Aviation). Under the terms of the 35 year lease, the existing tenant has the express right to do this. The only role the city can play is in evaluating the new operator’s financial capacity, experience in running an FBO, or fixed-based operator business, and compliance with Airport Leasing Policy.
FBOs are required to maintain public buildings, like customer lobbies, offices, pilot lounges, restrooms, and adequate parking. They also have to provide a ramp area for aircraft parking for at least five aircraft. An FBO is also mandated to have regular operation hours schedule, open for a minimum of eight hours per day and seven days per week. After-hours fueling services must also be available either through on-call employees or shared schedules, but the operational and regulatory demands contribute to the limitations on the airport’s 24/7 operations.
3. Shouldn’t this have been reviewed by the Renton Airport Advisory Committee? In short, no. The only role the city has in this scope is to review the new operator’s feasibility and have city council approve this. There are specific provisions noting that consent should not be “unreasonably withheld, conditioned or denied” by the council. If we took any other action beyond what is described in the lease, the city could have been open to an FAA Part 16 Complaint, or a potential lawsuit for damages as a result of losing the sale of the business.As stated above, there are many ways to influence the lease, and they are encouraged by the FAA-sponsored Renton Airport Sustainability Plan.
A statement from the Mayor claims the historic old control tower building, along with two popular airport hangars, were “originally scheduled for demolition in 2015.” This is false.
A public statement issued by the Mayor two days ago provided inaccurate information about the buildings occupied by The Landing Gear Works. “The City of Renton is moving through the legal process of eviction of a tenant for a long-standing non-payment of rent. The occupied buildings in question were originally scheduled for demolition in 2015.”
The statement says “buildings” plural, indicating that the old tower building together with the hangars leased by Landing Gear Works were all scheduled to be torn down in 2015. Discussion of tearing down the hangars in 2015 is nonsense, as they were in good shape and in high demand. They should only be demolished if better replacements are planned and shovel-ready.
Potential long-term replacement of the old tower building has been discussed notionally for years, and an appropriate advisory statement was added to the lease. But the building was never “scheduled for demolition”, and still isn’t to this day. The building was designated Aircraft Manufacturing space in the 2017 FAA-approved Renton Airport Layout Plan with no reference to possible removal, and this status was unchanged until 2022.
The lengthy process for demolishing and replacing this building involves an airport layout plan revision, public notification, RAAC review, Council approval, FAA approval, environmental review, Requests for Proposal, bid openings, new building plans, lease negotiations, and many other steps– a process that generally takes years. In the nine years elapsed since 2015, the only step taken has been the first one, the 2022 Airport Layout Plan now says the building might possibly be replaced at some future date.
So why does the Mayor’s statement say these building were scheduled for demolition? Unfortunately, this looks like an excuse for the airport neglecting the old tower building since 2015.
According to a 2019 email from Landing Gear Works to the Airport Business Manager, the airport stopped repairing the un-leased sections of this building– the historic tower, hallways, bathrooms, and other public areas– many years ago. (These areas were not leased to The Landing Gear Works.) One would expect these areas to be professionally cared for by the airport.
It is not okay to stop maintaining a building in Renton just because the owner decides it will be torn down at some future date. This is unsafe, and contrary to building codes. They city should set a good example, not a bad one.
Renton’s code enforcement division has allowed vacant buildings to become hazards in our city. For instance, the large seven-story glass office buildings on Park Avenue, that served as Boeing offices until 2021, have become dystopian and deadly, with broken glass, missing fire protection, and reported open elevator shafts. Residents have been pleading for action from Renton code enforcement. City officials say not to worry because the buildings are scheduled for demolition in the future, but the danger is real today. Will the Landing Gear Works building be next?
Missing doors and broken windows allow thieves to steal metal from fire protection systems in the seven-story office buildings on Park and 6th, vacated and sold by Boeing in 2021. Broken glass, fire hazards, and fall hazards put curious youth in peril.
Just a few days ago Landing Gear Works repaired a leaking 2 inch water main in the old tower building. Fortunately, they discovered it quickly, repaired the pipe, and cleaned up the mess. The leak would have flooded the entire building if it had been vacant.
A few days ago Landing Gear Works made an emergency repair on a gushing 2″ water main in their ceiling; if the building had been vacant it would have flooded
We need our Public Works office and Code Enforcement to help keep all of Renton’s buildings looking their best, regardless of how many years the buildings have left. Working with Landing Gear Works on roof repairs would have been the easy, cost-effective approach to protect the airport’s old tower building while they complete the lengthy public process for making eventual improvements. If they insist on going through with the eviction, they must have a plan to keep the building safe and looking good until final decisions are made about its future.
Below is an email from Tom Anderson, President of Landing Gear Works, in 2019, asking the the Airport Business Manager to properly maintain the public parts of the old tower building. Tom eventually did the maintenance himself.
———- Forwarded message ———
From: Thomas Anderson <tom@tlgw.aero>
Date: Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 2:15 PM
Subject: Building issue/Leven Lease
To: Casey Boatman <CBoatman@rentonwa.gov>
Casey,
I hope you had a great week.
As I am sure you are aware that we have been fighting water leaks here ever since we moved in. The airport initially took care of us in 2013-2015. Fixing items as required and maintaining the grass that merged into the public ramp area. In 2016 we finalized and leased the whole building and three hangers in building one. There is also public areas still here that we do not lease, hallways, bathrooms, the tower, etc. We had always complied with the terms of the lease and made sure minor repairs were done.The airport leased us a supposedly turn key building as so we can make a living and contribute to the community. In 2016 the airport stopped or greatly cut down on the services we had depended on. The roof is in very poor shape and we have attempted under airport guidance to make repairs, bandaids at best. At first the trade off for reasonable lease rates made it possible for us to afford the maintenance. However the Airport and the transportation division of the city has used its advantage to reduce our working area in building 1 and thus we have now used every square inch of 295 prime space. Three times in the last 2 years we had to move everything out of 800 square feet to keep office furniture, office equipment, sensitive records, drawings and such safe from water damage. I am asking for help here as the public areas above the halls are the main area that the airport, in my humble opinion, should be maintaining.
The next question is where are we at with our lease application proposal? We are now more than ever wanting to take over the SW corner and move into a nice useful and mutually beneficial facility. There is an unconfirmed rumor floating around that the Leven Estate will be granted a 10 year extension over the original lease. Is this true? If my opinion is worth a nickel, it should be legally challenged. I am sure there is a way through our legal efforts to make sure businesses like ours are fast tracked into space that is GA community beneficial, safe, dry and spacious. I doubt if the original lease holder is true to the original intention. Bruce died and his estate really does not use the space as was intended. It probably can be shown one or two corporate aircraft and businesses are not related to the ideas of the original lessee.
Let me know as soon as you can what the airport can do for us, possibly a credit for currently condemned space, options for possible partial use of a closed building to the south, building 1 or the old Kaynan main hanger that does not have major leak problems. Any future ideas we may find attractive? I do wish and hope to grace these grounds as TLGW grows in support of Renton and this awesome airport.
A RAAC meeting was held in 2023, after a one and a half year period of no meetings
In a statement yesterday, Mayor Pavone dismissed one of the most important tools we’ve used to maintain a livable city; The Renton Airport Advisory Committee (RAAC).
I’ve written about this committee frequently, providing background here. In this entry I want to address a comment that shows his fundamental misunderstanding of the role and effectiveness of this committee
The Mayor diminished the effect they’ve had in the past by writing “RAAC has a limited scope as an advisory committee, and can make suggestions, but are not in charge of setting policy or changing lease agreements. “
The Mayor’s comment is wrong, just as it would be wrong to claim that the Chamber of Commerce is merely advisory to the City Council. The RAAC is made up of pilots, aviation professionals, and residents, who have authority in their planes and neighborhoods that the Renton City Council does not possess.
To put it succinctly, as soon as a plane is airborne, city council has no more influence over them. Residents can have some influence, lodging FAA complaints if they feel unduly impacted and they track airplane tail numbers. This is where RAAC shines. Pilots, aviation professionals and other airport users work with neighborhood representatives to establish voluntary standards that keep complaints to a minimum. The FAA has a representative on RAAC that participates, and so does city council. This work is not subordinate to Renton City Council.
When RAAC is working smoothly, it’s an excellent forum for creating operational documents, voluntary noise standards, airport layout plans, lease policies, fuel policies, and other important work. With such an organization at our disposal, staffed with aviation experts freely giving their time and talent, it’s a terrible waste to not activate them. There is strong precedent for them setting lease rates and providing other leasing decisions.
Unfortunately, because the Administration appears to think “they have limited scope as an advisory committee,” the RAAC has been effectively grounded most of the past few years. This has allowed relationships to get more tense at the airport, and noise levels to increase in our neighborhoods. Soon jets that are three-times noisier than prop planes will start landing regularly for fill-ups, and we will have missed our chance to engage RAAC to mitigate the issues.
All of this because the administration does not understand the RAAC’s capability or role.
Yesterday the Renton Mayor released an Airport statement explaining that council felt compelled to evict The Landing Gear Works (TLGW). He put sole blame on TLGW for falling behind in rent without mentioning the serious billing errors by his administration that plunged TLGW into rent arrears. I’m describing these errors here for the first time. (The Mayor also didn’t mention the failure of the airport manager to extend a long enough lease to make building repairs, per airport lease policy, and I’ve covered that here.)
In November 2022 the Renton Airport Business Manager realized he had a serious problem. He had been underbilling The Landing Gear Works (TLGW) for months for their hangars, workshops and offices on Renton airport. The lease rate had increased and the new amount was NOT reflected in the bills. The accounting error added up to five months of lease payments. The Airport’s error would be bad news for TLGW and would negatively impact their business, especially on the heels of the pandemic. It would have been courteous to call or visit TLGW to break the news, apologize for the mistake, and work out a plan. But instead, the Airport Manager just directed his accountant to send a bill for the corrected amounts.
His efforts to downplay the error resulted in predictable confusion in the offices of Landing Gear Works and Renton City Accounting.
When the bill for the error showed up in the accountant’s office at Landing Gear Works, she wrote back to the City “Is there a way to fix this statement to reflect the actual balance of $14709.22? In the meantime I will get another payment asap.” When she received a response from the city, she immediately forwarded it to President Tom Anderson with this email message: “I asked for a current statement from the City of Renton for the rent. This is what she sent.”
Tom Anderson’s shock is apparent in his email reply: ” This says we owe 50K !!!!!!!!! ”
The Airport Manager and his boss, the Public Works Administrator, obviously knew it looked bad. Whenever they told this story, they referred to it, unfairly, as the Landing Gear Works falling behind on rent, never mentioning the city’s own accounting mistakes that contributed to it. To this day I have not seen them publicly explain it to City Council or the Renton Community.
As Mr. Anderson was working to catch up from the city’s billing error, his roof began to leak. That is where I picked up the story in my first post on The Landing Gear Works.
Here is the statement from the city that started it all. The text in the first image reads as follows:
———- Forwarded message ———
From: <City of Renton Accounting>
Date: Thu, Nov 17, 2022 at 12:16 PM
Subject: RE: Airport Invoice
To: Accounting TLGW <accounting@thelandinggearworks.com>
Hello,
Please see attached statement. The statement was inadvertently generated from 2019-current. I’ve highlighted the outstanding balances on the statement, and below is a screenshot of your open items for ease of reading. It was brought to my attention under addendum 6 to LAG-13-005 there was a rent increase that was to take affect in March 2022. I have issued an invoice for the difference from March-December (attached), and your billing amount will reflect this increase on your monthly invoices moving forward. Invoices issued for September-November are due in full ASAP, but we can work out a payment plan for the back billing invoice. Please feel free to email or call with any questions or concerns. Thanks!
Mr. Anderson met with the Airport staff and they agreed on a plan. TLGW would pay the previously unbilled amounts over time. But the airport’s normal bills do not contain a lot of information, and the catch-up accounting proved confusing and time-consuming. The City made more errors along the way. Accountants at Landing Gear Works and the City struggled to coordinate how to apply payments to current rent vs back rent. The Airport Leadership, not TLGW, had created the billing confusion and abundance of overdue rent.
Typical bill received by Landing Gear Works. The Company paid these bills throughout 2022, only to be told they had fallen behind. This bill from February 2024 does not give any clue as to past due amounts.
The remainder of this article is a tiny sample of the actual back and forth emails between their offices. I’ve removed the names and email addresses of personnel.
Renton’s Pro-flight hangars are being marketed for jet parking.
In a statement yesterday, Renton’s Mayor claimed that there was nothing the city could have done to prevent Proflight from selling their facility for private jet parking. His capitulatory statement almost rolls out the red carpet to jets from Boeing Field.
“One of our long-term existing airport tenants (Pro Flight Aviation) has sold their existing business to a new operator (Dark Horse Aviation). Under the terms of the 35 year lease, the existing tenant has the express right to do this. The only role the city can play is in evaluating the new operator’s financial capacity, experience in running an FBO, or fixed-based operator business, and compliance with Airport Leasing Policy.”….”The new firm is looking to try to service jets shut out of Boeing Field; however, this was going to occur naturally as Boeing Field is taking on greater importance as a cargo hub and site of large business aircraft. “
This position contrasts with many Renton officials of the past, who have worked hard to prevent a Jet Center in Renton. Mayor Jess Tanner, a former FAA executive living just west of our airport, become involved in city politics when he was appointed to the city’s aviation board overseeing the Renton airport after his retirement in 1980. He was determined to keep our airport focussed on prop-powered general aviation along with new Boeing takeoffs.
Mayor Tanner appointed an Airport Manager who shared Mayor Tanner’s affection for diverse, accessible general aviation, and understood the airport would thrive if it had both aviation community and Renton community buy-in. This manager helped draft the Proflight lease in a way that encouraged propeller airplane services, like flight training, aerial photography, rental aircraft, and repairs, ahead of jet parking. The lease was negotiated with the owners of Proflight when they sought to build their beautiful new building, and needed a long-term lease.
This effective Airport Manager took another important step, spearheading the city’s work in creating the Renton Airport Sustainability Management Plan. This plan, which the FAA helped sponsor with $150,000, could assure we had a sustainable, effective, neighborly airport into the future. The Renton Airport Advisory Committee (RAAC)– composed of industry representatives, airport tenants, residents, Renton officials, and FAA — worked with a consultant to create and approve this plan.
The Sustainability Management Plan would be an important tool for introducing new tenants and working with them toward a successful future. But for the plan to work, the Airport Manager has to make it work. There are daily, monthly, quarterly and annual, and biennial tasks for the Airport Manager in the plan, and few of these were getting done as the airport leadership changed five times in the past five years (with one airport director working remotely from out-of-state).
If the Airport Management sustainability tasks had been getting completed, and the RAAC had been empowered to meet regularly to assist, other attractive uses for Proflight might have been available. Or Proflight could have received a rent-reduction, in exchange for a lease that further limited future jet activity. Or when the new lease was signed with Dark Horse, they could have been advised that they would only be allowed to expand in the future under certain conditions, like preserving prop-powered airplane services. Or new voluntary noise agreements could be reached in exchange for future consideration, or operating hours might have been agreed to. The new tenant could have been informed they had to study the sustainability plan and commit to it, as is expected with other Renton standards and procedures. I’m sure many other levers for influencing the future were available, but cast aside. Instead, the Mayor’s statement says there’s no way to influence it.
Below is some of the specific language in the Proflight lease that encouraged a community-focussed facility over jet parking. With collaboration, this could have been further improved on over the years:
I was surprised to see the Mayor issue a statement tonight defending the Airport Director’s actions at the airport. In my blog entries on the topic, I had not mentioned the Mayor, but his statement shows that a lack of knowledge of aviation goes all the way up to the Mayor’s office.
I immediately spotted many errors in the Mayor’s statement, and I don’t have time to respond to all of them right now. I will point out a very obvious one for starters.
The Mayor’s statement includes this question and answer:
2. Will Renton Municipal Airport be opened up to 24/7 jet traffic?
No, any business operations will be subject to the air traffic control tower operation hours – from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM in winter; and 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM during summer.
But Renton residents under the flight path need to merely look up at night to see that our airport is open 24/7. When the tower is closed, pilots self-report their arrivals and departures.
Residents can confirm the airport’s hours on the City of Renton’s own website. Our airport is a 24/7 operation. Note paragraph 3 below says pilots can not be directed when or where to fly. Here is an excerpt.
After working for 33 years in aviation, with 28 years on City Council, I feel like this is a lop-sided debate.
Tomorrow I plan to address problems with the Mayor’s statement regarding the jet center, the RAAC, the lease policies, the current eviction, and the statement that the old control tower was scheduled for demolition in 2015.
In last night’s meeting, The Landing Gear Works president Tom Anderson said he welcomed the forthcoming discussion with the Transportation Committee, as recommended in the agenda bill 3532 attached to the consent agenda. Today Mr. Anderson learned that Council had approved the eviction without making the recommended referral.
The council voted unanimously last night, but due to an error in the printed agenda, the vote left observers uncertain whether Council had voted to evict Landing Gear Works or send the matter to Council Transportation Committee.
The confusion arose because the consent agenda action said “Council Concur” paired with the attorney request regarding Landing Gear Works, but the formal Agenda Bill 3532 that was attached to the item (and recycled from two-weeks ago) explicitly recommended Council refer the item to Transportation Committee.
I emailed the City Clerk to clarify whether Council had concurred with the Agenda Bill or the attorney’s recommendation, and was informed that it was the attorney’s recommendation. In other words, the Renton Council has voted to evict Landing Gear Works. Unlike the approach in past decades, the Council never discussed the issues with the tenant.
Since the Council acted unanimously without any public discussion, it is a reasonable assumption that the Executive Session last Monday concerned this topic. If so, it means that “public knowledge regarding the discussion is likely to result in an adverse legal or financial consequence to the agency,” which is a requirement for holding such an executive session regarding an enforcement action per RCW 42.30.110 1(i) .
It’s never a good look for the city to admit they would probably lose if they were forced to discuss an issue in public. Such a move should only be taken in extraordinary situations, not to get out of discussions with a tenant about how to deal with a leaky roof. I think the Council should study all sides of how they arrived in this circumstance, and make any necessary changes, so that they aren’t afraid to discuss their lease-related decisions in public next time.
Mr. Anderson spoke last night about his repeated requests to lease a different space, and said the requests had been lost by the city. If the eviction goes through, eight living-wage jobs, a world-renowned high-tech Renton-made product, and tax revenues will also be lost by our city.
City Council item 6(c) references agenda bill 3532, and recommends council concurrence
Agenda Bill 3532 recommends the item be referred by council to Transportation Committee for discussion. But this is not what will happen.
Full background on The Landing Gear Works conflict with Renton Airport Management can be found here
The Gweduck (pronounced “gooey duck” ) is a Renton-built, Renton-designed amphibious, highly-advanced composite plane that burns a fraction of the fuel and is much quieter than earlier generations of similar planes. Building such a plane in Renton fit perfectly in our FAA-sponsored Sustainability Management plan. But a few years ago Renton Airport Management rejected a proposal to manufacture the plane here, and today Airport Management is evicting the Gweduck/Landing Gear Works engineering offices. The space appears to be targeted to even more private jets, dramatically out of step with our Airport Sustainability Management plan. Council is enabling it.
Twelve years ago Renton proudly stepped up to being one of the first airports in the country to create an FAA-sponsored Sustainability Management Plan. We were eager to demonstrate leadership in environmental sustainability, livability, and aviation innovation, and we requested and received a $150,000 FAA grant to create the sustainability plan– one of the first ten cities in the country to do so.
Creating the plan took hard work and coordination with many stakeholders. It’s a detailed and thoughtful 41-page plan, that shows Renton’s early and enduring commitment to protecting our climate, our natural environment, and our community’s livability– the issues our leaders claim they embrace right now.
Graphic from Airport Sustainability Management Plan
The problem is, I’m left wondering if our current leaders even know the Airport Sustainability Plan exists. They should know, since long-standing airport tenants, residents, and RAAC members keep bringing it up. And Airport Management should be showing how their decisions fit within it. Committing to this plan was a promise to both the community and the FAA.
Our Airport Management Team is currently bringing private jets to Renton and ejecting companies that improve efficiency of small planes. They seem eager to demolish the historic tower building, possibly to clear enough space for large private jets on the south-east corner of the airport, after leasing to a jet center on the west side a couple months ago. Private jets create ten times as much carbon as airline seats and other forms of travel, pay 2% of FAA expenses while generating 16 % of the flights, and are noisier than propeller driven aircraft.
Our City Council has not publicly questioned this unexpected heading. The Council appears to be boarding a rudderless plane, piloted by a crew that doesn’t know the approved flight plan.
The Renton Airport Advisory Committee (RAAC), our FAA-supported Community Roundtable, is supposed to be meeting at least quarterly, and far more often when there are issues like these. But Airport Management is responsible for scheduling RAAC meetings, and they have held just a handful of RAAC meetings within the last few years; and these meetings have been hindered by zoom technical issues. By ignoring our sustainability plan and not regularly scheduling and supporting RAAC meetings, our leaders have rejected our best tools for ensuring we have a sustainable airport, and a livable environment, into the future.
I’m asking city leaders to study this plan, discuss it, and recommit to it. This will include reinstating regular RAAC meetings, as called for in the plan.
The Airport Sustainability Plan is available here in the most recent form I could obtain by publication of this article. The Plan is mentioned on the Renton City Website, but I could not find a link to the plan on the city’s website at the time of this writing. So I’ve uploaded the final version as approved by RAAC in 2012, and it is available here. If/when I acquire a different later version, I’ll add it to this blog entry.
Introductory page from Sustainability Management Plan
Goal summary from Airport Sustainability Management Plan
Renton’s long-time general aviation service provider, Pro-Flight, has been sold to a company with an express plan to transition it to servicing Jet Aircraft, to relieve Boeing Field. An enhanced fueling station (a gas station for jets) appears to be part of their plan.
I’m not referring to new Boeing jets, which are the latest technology, and take-off lightly-loaded over the lake once or twice per day. I’m talking about 30-year-old Learjets price-shopping for fuel, and landing at all hours of day and night.
Excerpt from Dark Horse business plan
Industry pressure to cater to jets in Renton has existed for decades, but we resisted this pressure during the 28 years I was on Renton City Council. Jets are typically 2-3 times louder than the propeller-driven counterparts, and Renton neighborhoods are already barely tolerating airport noise as it is.
In addition, private jets are not as available to residents. With smaller propellor planes, a Renton resident wishing to learn how to fly can go to Renton airport and take lessons. Similarly, a Renton photographer can charter a plane for a photo-shoot. Other Renton residents have joined flight clubs at our airport, or even keep their private airplane here.
Our airport is currently a Renton Community Airport (that also launches new Boeing aircraft once or twice per day). If we’re going to switch the airport’s focus to relieving Boeing Field Jet traffic, this was worthy of a discussion by our Renton Airport Advisory Committee. The greater Renton community also should have been notified. While few noticed as the city extended this lease, everyone will notice when jets begin refueling regularly in Renton in the future.
Our community had a heated episode with a proposed Jet Center seventeen years ago, when our Council was presented with a proposal, and residents living from Benson Hill to Mercer Island formed an organized opposition. The “NoJets.org” group used every bit of leverage they could to defeat the proposal. This was not easy because FAA does not give cities any real say in what airplanes use our airport. Our city can only partially manage the airport activity by the choice of tenants we lease to, and by the length of our runway.
I do not blame the new Leaseholder, Dark Horse Aviation LLC, as they have been completely up-front with their intentions. They sent a letter to Renton’s Public Works Administrator back in November spelling out exactly how they would use the property if a lease was extended. I just wish our RAAC and Renton community had been notified.
The letter of introduction. The words “Renton’s outstanding future to be the legitimate first-class corporate reliever for light and midsize jets in the region,” ideally would have prompted airport management to consult RAAC and the greater Renton community for advice.
Renton airport may become a gas station for jets. Noisier older model jets, that burn more fuel and have owners that are more price-sensitive, may be Renton’s likely customer base.
This excerpt from the business plan shows the new lease will extend Pro-Flight’s current daytime prop-plane operation to 24/7 jet landings and takeoffs. This will be of interest to residents living within a few thousand feet of the airport. The RAAC has representatives from every neighborhood specifically to advise on topics like this.
This noise comparison published by Purdue University includes a Jet Airplane flyover at 1000 feet at 103 dB, and a propeller flyover at 1000 feet at 88 dB. Because of the logarithmic scale, the Jet is 2-3 times louder. This is due primarily to the greater flow of air at higher speed in a jet engine.
Sofia Farret carefully prepares landing gear kits for shipping to customers. She also performs other critical aviation roles at Landing Gear Works. Ms. Farret has spoken to Renton City Council twice, including this past Monday night, asking for help in settling the lease issue.
Renton Airport management and The Landing Gear Works are engaged in a landlord-tenant dispute that’s made its way up to the Renton Council, dominating Monday’s audience comment period. Eight aerospace workers could lose their jobs, and they were asking for Council help. Council Members seemed to want to help, but have been reluctant to engage directly with Landing Gear Works.
Renton airport management is frustrated with Landing Gear Work’s claim that the company repaired their roof in lieu of rent payments. Airport management asserts the roof was Landing Gear Works’ responsibility under the lease.
Landing Gear Works company founder Tom Anderson asked Council for help in settling the lease disagreement at Monday’s council meeting. He said his offer included his providing “good faith funds.”
The president of Landing Gear Works, Tom Anderson, said the city only made the roof his responsibility a few years ago through unfair pressure, and he doesn’t understand how the city would expect him to install a new roof and make other long-term upgrades to a building when he can only get a one or two year lease. He says he’s been trying to settle these issues for months, including making payments if they won’t accept his repair receipts, but the airport office has been uncommunicative. He points out the Renton airport is on their third airport director in three years, and recently had no director for several months after the previous director attempted to manage our airport from his home in Utah.
My opinion is that Council Transportation Committee should meet face-to-face with Landing Gear Works and see if an agreement can be worked out before going down the expensive path of litigation. Under RCW 35A.11.020, Renton City Council has ultimate leasing responsibility for Renton Airport, and past councils have engaged in these discussions with tenants when necessary. I recommend Council not go down the eviction path until they’ve personally tried to work this out.
Recent councils have not experienced many landlord-tenant disputes at Renton airport, thanks primarily to the long, productive tenure of a former Renton airport manager who worked closely with all airport tenants, and ensured there were regular monthly meetings of an empowered Renton Airport Advisory Committee (RAAC). The RAAC combined the perspectives of airport users and representatives from Renton’s neighborhoods to build a thriving, compatible airport community, and they addressed tenant issues like roof maintenance productively and early. In my early days on council, Prior to formation of the RAAC, up to 25 percent of my council time was spent handling airport landlord-tenant disputes. Recently, frequent changes in airport management and infrequent RAAC meetings are bringing back landlord-tenant tensions at the airport.
Sergio Nunez, a ten-year employee of Landing Gear Works, asks the Council to help save his company.
Background on Landing Gear Works:
For 11 years Mr. Anderson and his company “The Landing Gear Works” have designed and built specialized light plane landing gear at Renton Airport. Mr. Anderson pointed out at the Monday meeting that he has deep roots in Renton; his Dad ran a Machine shop in Renton dating back to 1947.
The Landing Gear Works’ most popular product is a titanium landing gear system for Cessna 180 and 185 aircraft. These specialized landing gear are lighter weight and less susceptible to corrosion than alternatives, and are sought after world-wide by Cessna owners seeking improved performance and durability. They are not available from anyone else.
On a typical day, the Landing Gear Works will have two or three customer aircraft on-site receiving new gear, and will ship out additional landing gear sets to repair stations around the globe.
The products are made entirely in Renton, with major components fabricated in their airport workshop and other components coming from machine shops throughout Renton.
The shiny Cessna 180 titanium landing gear strut in front, available only from Landing Gear Works, weighs half as much as the approved steel strut behind it, and it is less susceptible to corrosion. The titanium gear reduces an airplane’s weight by 23 pounds, extending it’s range, adding cargo capacity, and reducing its carbon footprint. These are made in Renton.
The Landing Gear Works must maintain key approvals from the FAA to sell these products. The FAA has issued Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs) approving the design, and Parts Manufacturer Approvals (PMAs) authorizing the manufacturing. Both of these approvals have to be rigorously maintained by Landing Gear Works, by showing they maintain high quality manufacturing processes and that their engineering team is responsive to in-service incidents involving their products. They have an FAA “continuing airworthiness” responsibility to care for the design, manufacture, and use of these products, as long as they are in service on airplanes.
One continuing airworthiness obligation is maintaining an approved spare parts supply. Needed parts must be readily shipped to anyone with an airplane on ground. FAA enforces this requirement to keep the world’s aircraft flying safely, and eliminate any temptation to use unauthorized parts in repairs.
An eviction of an STC and PMA holder (such as Landing Gear Works) with a mere thirty days notice is incompatible with meeting these Federal regulations and expectations. Ninety days for a move should ordinarily be considered a bare minimum, and more time would be better.
The Landing Gear Works maintains FAA-approved spares, manufactured in Renton, that can be quickly exported around the world to meet their continuing airworthiness requirements.
The Historic Building:
Landing Gear Works’ engineering and manufacturing takes place in a historic building at Renton airport. The “Old Tower Building” was built in 1943, and provided air traffic control when Renton was building up to one hundred and sixty B-29 superfortresses per month during WWII. Later, the building served as the Engineering Liaison office for Boeing’s flight line.
The Landing Gear Works occupies the old Renton Control Tower building, built in 1943.The view from Renton’s historic old control tower, looking over the Boeing flight line today. The black and white photo shows the view when Renton was producing 160 B-29 Superfortresses each month during WWII.The Landing Gear Works building still contains reminders of it’s long service for the Boeing Company. While at Boeing I personally spent long days and some overnights in this building as I worked with flightline “Liaison” engineers making adjustments to airplanes prior to first flight.
When Boeing gave up their lease on the building and turned it back to Renton, we searched for an appropriate aviation use that could occupy the building. The building does not have any hangar space and is designated in the FAA approved airport layout plan as “Aircraft Manufacturing.”
I remember when our long-serving airport manager enthusiastically announced he found the right company, with Renton roots and a high-end product. Landing Gear Works was to occupy most of the building, with the exception of the historic tower and some of the offices below the tower. At that time the city maintained the exterior of the building, including cutting the grass, picking up debris, and keeping the roof repaired. The airport manager also helped Landing Gear Works sublease three hangar spaces to install their equipment on aircraft.
Renton’s 2017 FAA-approved Airport Layout Plan available here, showed Building 36 (the old tower building) approved for for Aircraft Manufacturing (in green), which Landing Gear Works uses it for. Non-manufacturing use, general aviation, or non-aviation use would not be per plan.
The Landing Gear Works operated in smooth partnership with Renton for many years. The recent dispute took root when a later airport manager condemned the hangars used by Landing Gear Works and scheduled them for demolition, and insisted that Landing Gear Works must agree to rent the entire old tower building under a one-to-two year lease if they desired replacement hangar space.
Mr. Anderson says the city then stopped doing any repairs or upgrades to the building, asserting it had become solely a tenant responsibility. The roof began to leak in several locations, and a rusted AC unit broke from a wall in a storm and let water damage an office. The roof appears to be one or two decades past its design life, and is now subsisting only from frequent patching.
Normally, if the city expects a tenant to pay for long-term upgrades to a building, such as a new roof or HVAC system, the city will extend a lease for a long enough period that the cost of the upgrades can be amortized over many years. As a Council Member, I often helped negotiate these time frames, to ensure our tenants could amortize their improvements. That was apparently not done in this case. Landing Gear Works began to use a large percentage of their profits making short-term repairs to their building, not able to fund major upgrades without a long-term lease.
One of many manufacturing rooms. The large building comprises a compact factory, filled with carefully calibrated mills, presses, lathes and other machine tools that are used in manufacturing landing gear. Thirty days notice to move the FAA-approved operation is not respectful of the rigorous care and planning required for such a move.
The future for the historic Old Tower Building:
The Airport Layout Plan was updated in 2022. While the latest version is not yet on the City Website, I have included it below. The new layout plan shows that the historic old tower building along with several other buildings may eventually be demolished, and replaced with new hangars and offices. Ideally, new airport buildings would front the perimeter fence, so customers could visit a building without going onto the air side of the security fence. The layout plan shows such a configuration.
In the 2022 Airport Layout Plan, purple cross-hatched buildings including old tower building are designated for possible future removal, to be replaced by new hangar/workshop/office buildings shown in red along perimeter fence. Light blue area would get a revised taxiway.
Implementing this plan will require extensive coordination with leaseholders and other stakeholders to protect everyone’s interests. It will require a request for proposals, public review of options, planning, permitting, and FAA approval. Hopefully this plan will also include coordination with the Renton Historical Society and building architects, who should consider saving the historic tower cab and incorporating it into one of the new replacement hangars.
Finding an aviation tenant for a leaking office building that is planned for demolition will be difficult, and it’s possible the city could go months or years without income from this building. We can look a half mile east to the former Boeing Buildings on Park Avenue to see how poorly buildings can fare after a period without tenants. Unfortunately a recent airport break-in shows that the even the airport perimeter fence is not enough to stop intrusions on the airport.
I think Council and Landing Gear Works should sit down together and attempt to sort this out. If a settlement can be reached for Landing Gear Works to catch up on rent, with a possible allowance for continuing to nurse-along the aging roof, it would make sense to keep them in the building until demolition is near. If demolition will not happen for ten or more years, then a long-term lease that allows Landing Gear Works to install and amortize a new roof would make sense.
New titanium gear installed. (This photo is from The Landing Gear Works website)
The State House just passed the Police Pursuit Initiative 77-20, which will restore police pursuit policy generally back to pre-pandemic levels in 90 days. This will be a big step forward in preventing reckless driving, car thefts, burglaries, and other crimes.
Renton’s two 11th district House Representatives Bergquist and Hackney voted YES on this initiative, splitting with their 11th district Senatorial Colleague Bob Hasegawa who voted NO.
I appreciate Rep. Bergquist’s and Rep. Hackney’s support of this important safety measure.
After three years of severely limiting police pursuit authority amongst skyrocketing car thefts and highway fatalities, Washington Senate has FINALLY voted to restore police pursuit authority. If the State House does the same thing, our police will once again be able to pursue car thieves, reckless drivers, burglars, and others causing increased mayhem in our cities.
The Senate voted to enact Citizens Initiative 2113. If the Senate and the House both choose to enact the initiative, then it will become law. The Governor does not need to sign an initiative adopted by both the House and Senate. If the House chooses to reject it, then it will go to the voters.
The vote was 36 voting yes, to 13 voting no. Renton’s own 11th district Senator, Bob Hasegawa, was amongst the 27 percent voting “no”.
Please encourage our State House Representatives to vote “yes” on this important safety bill and make it law.
Representative Steve Bergquist, Steve.Bergquist@leg.wa.gov
Representative David Hackney, David.Hackney@leg.wa.gov
See my previous blog entry for more background on this topic, including the 500% increase in Renton car thefts that has occured after the police pursuit restrictions went into effect.
More information on review of this initiative in the legislature, including voting and hearing records, can be found here.
A screenshot of the ValleyCom 911 dispatch log, showing steady Renton Police dispatches for stolen cars this morning
Renton cars are being stolen at record rates in Renton. Our Valley Comm dispatch center shows twenty-one vehicles stolen in the past 24 hours. Many of these cars will be found extensively damaged and abandoned within days, having been used in commission of other crimes. Just one year ago I shared that Renton car thefts had increased 70% from the year prior, reaching 5 per day. Today’s rate is a 420% increase over that high March 2023 average.
If this rate of vehicle theft were to continue, Renton would see 7665 vehicles stolen in the next year, representing about 10 percent of all our vehicles and $100-150 million dollars in vehicle damages. (This amount of money is approximately three times Renton’s entire annual police budget). While the victims of the car theft suffer the most in these thefts, all Renton motorists will pay for this damage through higher insurance rates.
Many of these cars will be driven through the doors of local businesses, used in other burglaries and crimes, and driven recklessly through our city. In most cases, Renton Police have been forbidden to stop them. Unless officers see certain violent crimes being committed (and burglaries and reckless driving don’t count), the officers can’t pursue these vehicles under the 2021 Washington Police pursuit law.
There are some state legislators that somehow believe that having 21 cars stolen in Renton every night– driven recklessly through our city and crashed into our buildings– has made us safer because we are not put at risk by police chases any more.
As a scientist and engineer, I assure you these legislators are absolutely wrong about this. Since passing the law in 2021, Washington’s highway fatalities have been skyrocketing to the highest levels in decades, not dropping as these legislators over-simplistically predicted. Hundreds of additional state residents are being killed annually on our highways since the time the police were banned from pursuing stolen cars. While other states are getting safer, Washington is getting far more dangerous.
While our fatalities skyrocket, we watch powerlessly as unlicensed juveniles increasingly race stolen cars for fun, and criminals drive any speed they like. While the limitations on police chases have saved approximately three lives per year in Washington, this small gain is not nearly worth the hundreds of lives lost statewide, and the billions in statewide crime and damages. Tragically for our next generation, these policies are also teaching some of our youth that crime pays more than going to school and learning job skills, curtailing their opportunities to build the fulfilling, healthy lives we all want for them.
Our State Legislators are reviewing the police pursuit legislation this coming week, and Renton residents are encouraged to let them know how you feel about letting our cars get stolen with impunity. Also, tell them you want to be safe driving on our roads again, and you are getting tired of seeing the fronts of your favorite business covered in plywood.
You can email your legislators at the following addresses:
Senator Bob Hasegawa, Bob.Hasegawa@leg.wa.gov
Representative Steve Bergquist, Steve.Bergquist@leg.wa.gov
Representative David Hackney, David.Hackney@leg.wa.gov
These vehicle thefts all happened within minutes of each other. Valley Comm continuously updates the previous 24-hours of calls on it’s website, in this format. It’s not possible for readers to sort by call type, so I’ve extracted 24 hours of vehicle theft data in the table below.
Below is the extract of auto-theft calls to 911 in the past 24 hours, including the partial address where each vehicle theft was reported. (Note that there may be others: if a victim filed an online reporting instead of calling 911 to report their car stolen, it would not appear on this list.)
For more information on this topic, including links to additional source data, click here.
I was surprised to see an article in the Seattle Times today featuring a photo of one of Renton’s newest apartment buildings under a headline that included the words “Ponzi scheme.” The Seattle Times story (behind a paywall) describes the far-reaching bankruptcy of Bellevue firm iCap and their associated LLCs, including Colpitts Sunset LLC which developed the Sunset Terrace Apartment building in Renton Highlands.
Seattle Times iCap bankruptcy story features a photo of the Sunset Terrace Renton Apartment building overlooking the climbing pyramid at Sunset Neighborhood Park
The painful bankruptcy has apparently come as a shock to many investors, who believed that they were loaning money at a fixed interest rate to help build needed housing, and that the loans were safely secured with substantial equity in real estate.
Instead, iCap, Colpitts Sunset LLC, and their other inter-related business holdings have apparently been operating in the red for many months, and have allegedly used new investor cash to cover interest payments to past investors. This realization has led some investors to file a lawsuit against iCap, and even describe the arrangement as a Ponzi scheme, although the authorities have not called it that at this point.
The lawsuit filing describes the complex nesting of LLC’s that form iCap, and provide some background regarding why investors could have believed these were safe investments. There are people that have put significant savings into these companies, and have been severely hurt by this.
I’ve also attached the Colpitts Sunset LLC bankruptcy filing document, which includes a matrix of hundreds of creditors, investors, and tradespersons that might be left holding the bag for construction costs of the Renton apartments after the Colpitts bankruptcy.
While this is indeed a sad story for those who have lost their investment money or performed uncompensated work, I am hopeful the Sunset Terrace Apartments and their occupants will be okay. Colpitts Sunset LLC had sold this apartment complex to new investors last July, around the time they filed their bankruptcy paperwork. The new investors payed $44,000,000 for the building, and they seem to be doing a fine job of running it.
The details in the lawsuit suggest the apartments in Renton may have been completed in part with money investors thought was targeted at Senior homes in Kenmore and student housing at University of Washington, both projects that have apparently not even broken ground. If this is the case, this sad situation is another unfortunate reminder about how hard it is to put the money together to fund needed housing in today’s expensive, high-interest-rate environment.
I’m not an attorney, and it is up to the courts to decide whether this was a fraudulent scheme or a case of desperate money managers working to keep a real estate enterprise afloat. It’s grim news in any case.
Sunset Terrace was sold on July 25, 2023 to Olympia Hotel Group for 44 million dollars, per King County Records
