Renton Airport Management delivers conflicting messages regarding future of Aerodyne hangar

Aerodyne Aviation, a Renton pioneering firm in aviation development and the one-time home of airport namesake Clayton Scott, is being pushed from Renton Airport over a rent dispute. This new sign was going to be placed on their building, but it was never installed due to the disagreement.

In a recent blog post I described Renton Airport Management’s  false “runway safety” explanation for pushing out Aerodyne Aviation, one of Renton’s oldest aviation research, design and maintenance centers.  Today I’m describing Airport leadership’s similarly misleading messaging about the future of the Aerodyne Hangar.  Airport property belongs to Renton taxpayers, and the public deserves an honest accounting of how it is being used to benefit our city.

Renton’s Airport management has declared Aerodyne’s Hangar so valuable that they want  Aerodyne to pay more than three times the rent that Aerodyne paid for just their land lease last year.  They say the Hangar and office complex, built by Aerodyne under their previous lease, has more than tripled the value of the property.  But at the same time, paradoxically, the same Airport Management says it wants to tear down the hangar, suggesting it has no value.

These airport leaders also deliver conflicting timelines about their plans for this important publically-owned property.  Renton’s Public Works Director Martin Pastucha and Airport Manager Manny Cruz wrote in their lease termination to Aerodyne that the hangar will be demolished  “within the next few years.” Less than two months later, Renton’s Public Works Director Martin Pastucha emailed one of Aerodyne’s sub-tenants stating that the hangar will be demolished in 2036. (Does Renton’s Public Works Director really consider a whole decade just “a few years”?)

In this excerpt from the May 28, 2026 lease termination letter to Aerodyne, Airport Management says the hangar will be redeveloped “within the next few years”

In this July 2026 email to an Aerodyne subtenant, Martin Pastucha says the hangar will be demolished in 2036, ten years from now. (The statement about runway safety is false)

As Renton Airport leaders give false reasons for wanting to demolish a valuable hangar and dramatically conflicting timelines for it’s demolition, Aerodyne’s storied 61-year-old aerospace business is in the process of leaving Renton.  Their hangar and office facility will soon become the latest abandoned building at Renton Airport, underutilized for the next ten years, as Renton airport leaders continue to intentionally eject aerospace experience, jobs and tax money.

Aerodyne partners and sub-tenants are asking for alternative tie-down and office space but are being told there is no space. They’ve been told by airport management that it’s easier to leave the Aerodyne building empty rather than rent it to several sub tenants, even though the number of airport management staff has nearly doubled in the last ten years.  This has fueled speculation that Airport leaders might be covertly planning to replace Aerodyne’s think-tank of pilots, engineers, scientists, airplane-builders, and start-up investors with more business jet parking.  Such a dramatic and arbitrary change in use is contrary to the Renton Airport Sustainability Plan that was meticulously developed by the Renton Airport Advisory Committee and the City Council in 2012. More business jet parking in Renton would also bring more night-time sleep disturbances.

Formerly full of distinct vintage, modern and experimental aircraft, Aerodyne’s hangar has now been nearly emptied (so that the building can sit empty for up to a decade)

As the world-wide birthplace of commercial jet aviation, Renton should be striving to keep our talent and reputation for aerospace leadership.  We should not be sending aerospace excellence out the door, seemingly because our current Public Works Director (who has never lived in King County and spent most of his career in Southern California) seeks to simplify his job.

As longtime businesses  like Aerodyne, Rainier Flight Services and the Landing Gear Works get pushed off of Renton Airport, Airport Management shifts the cost burden of running their airport (and maintaining their growing staff) to the businesses that remain.  At least one of these businesses has said they’re being asked to sign on to a 120 percent increase in their rent as the Airport tries to avoid running out of money with fewer businesses.  These hyper-increases in rent, combined with a dramatic increase in the Business and Occupations maximum tax cap, work against Renton’s interests in keeping the Boeing Company at our airport long-term.

Arodyne’s office lobby, as aerospace tenants and subtenants move out.

Renton City Council should insist that Renton’s Airport leaders provide accurate reports on the current status of the Aerodyne hangar, details on their specific lease negotiations with Aerodyne, and their long-term plans and schedule for the property.  Renton Council members are ultimately responsible for this and other airport leases, and they need to work with hard facts– not double-talk, random schedules, and fake statements about runway safety.  And the Council should share these facts with the public.  Even if detailed lease discussions happen behind the scenes, the displacement of a long-time tenant over a rent increase deserves Council attention, and the Council is only allowed to take action in a public meeting.

Renton’s previous Public Works Director was a licensed professional engineer, who could be relied on to tell nothing but the truth and the whole truth to Renton City Council, tenants, and the public.  Our current Public Works Director should try to emulate his predecessor instead of spinning the truth any way he likes.

Aerodyne’s hangar in 2019