Home drome for sale

Lachlan said:
Just wanted to say thanks for using “drome” instead of the typically sloppy multirotor unmanned aircraft kind of misspelling of a beloved local airstrip. :)
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Drives me nuts, and I probably should have used the apostrophe since I did shorten aerodrome.
 
Ugh. That sucks. Maybe you can get the 50 tenants to pony up 160k each and form a co-op. 32k/acre sounds pretty reasonable.

I didn't know those t's were back there. What do they rent for?

Are there any faa encumbrances? That might be the saving grace.
 
Location, location, location ... I don't think so! :eek:
 
Jim K said:
Ugh. That sucks. Maybe you can get the 50 tenants to pony up 160k each and form a co-op. 32k/acre sounds pretty reasonable.

I didn't know those t's were back there. What do they rent for?

Are there any faa encumbrances? That might be the saving grace.
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We're in the white hangar, I think its 600 a month. Nothing fancy but does have heat. Got an end unit so that might be a little more? Owner passed away last year and his wife had been running it since. The family wasn't too involved in it. I guess the guy was a sportsman and that's why he originally bought it in the 70's. So we sort of saw this coming when we heard he passed. Had previously talked to a few others about the possibility of buying in and they seemed receptive, but now that its actually for sale...and at that asking price. 10C sold about a decade ago and the runway is in better shape with twice as many hangars, the asking price then was 2.9m.

A friend of mine is an equity member of the gun club just to the north. Asked him if he had a spare 8 million I could borrow this morning. Was the first he heard about it but thinks the gun club would be interested because of what they might do the highway they border.

No FAA encumbrances to my knowledge. My idea would be a public/private partnership. Pilots could buy there hangar and be an equity partner and approach the municipality on their interest in partial. Would keep the airport around and have the possibility of getting some federal dollars for some improvements.

Just hope it doesnt turn into houses. A couple years ago the the place was underwater pretty good so I don't know if its developable or not.
 
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I’d have to seriously look at financials of rent income. Fuel sales aren’t keeping it afloat and landing fees aren’t charged. Given the amount of wetlands and the cost of building materials I don’t see it being built up as houses. At least not for now. With as much “buildable” land you’d be keeping it as something like the airport or buying for some “privacy”. The gun club may have a reasonable interest and let’s not forget, the asking price is just that.
 
looking at those areal photos, my first thought is the neighborhoods are filling in close. Bringing in more and more folks that will eventually complain about the noise. Especially if there's any time period at all with no activity...when flying starts back up those folks will say who put that airport here?... or they never asked my permission to build an airport next door to my house!
I didn't look to see where this is, but my bet is that the land will become a neighborhood or a shopping area.
 
Lived in Lake Zurich just south of there for 10 year. Nice area, but given the way Illinois is now, I'd not want to own any property let alone a business there.
 
Racerx said:
C81 is on the block. Anyone got a spare 8 million around to keep things convenient for me?
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I started my PPL training there in the 90's. It was always a busy place back then. Narrow runway.. Job moved me 3 times during my PPL training.
 
Do you guys own the hangar and lease the land or rent the whole thing?

Any communication from the widow?

Is there an airport manager (who orders the fuel and stocks that Pilot Planning Lounge etc.)?
 
I’m thinking you might want to look for a new airport to base out of. Decent enough area, and doubtful there’s anything preventing it from being ripped out and replaced with a fine assortment of builder grade homes.
 
AKBill said:
I started my PPL training there in the 90's. It was always a busy place back then. Narrow runway.. Job moved me 3 times during my PPL training.
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I remember when my dad was training there, id tag along in the back of his 160 with the cfi. It was sometimes 3-4 deep on waiting to take off. Now, it's not uncommon for either me or my dad being the only planes active for 3-4 days of decent to good weather.

I looked at Google Earth the other day. As recently as 2012 there was 20+ planes outside. In the early 2000's there was 40ish. Now? There's a Cherokee 140 without a prop, a Cessna 310 sans engines, a Bellanca I haven't seen move in years, and a Cessna that occasionally flies. Christmas letter said all the hangars were full.

Coincidentally the maintenance shop/flight school was put to bed after the gentleman retired. The "flight school" stuck around until 2016, but i think the mechanic was done before that. Selfishly I always hoped an enterprising individual would open up an avionics/ maintenance shop in the big hangar. I can't help but think (hope) that if a business was on field more aircraft would be as well and maybe hopefully allow it to stick around.
 
Terry M - 3CK (Chicago) said:
Do you guys own the hangar and lease the land or rent the whole thing?

Any communication from the widow?

Is there an airport manager (who orders the fuel and stocks that Pilot Planning Lounge etc.)?
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Rent the hangar. Would be interested in purchasing the hangar and be an equity partner in the airport with others there...but at 8 million. Woof.

Spoke to another gentleman more connected than I who spoke to the widow. She said it's always going to be an airport...but after she sells, you can't make that claim. The way the fuel works is really convoluted, not sure who I'd call the manager.
masloki said:
I’m thinking you might want to look for a new airport to base out of. Decent enough area, and doubtful there’s anything preventing it from being ripped out and replaced with a fine assortment of builder grade homes.
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Got to build A LOT of homes to make up for an 8 million dollar price tag.

I'm 12minutes from c81.
3ck is probably 25 minutes traffic depending and 10c about 35 minutes. Westosha prior to it turning into a gravel pit was about 30 minutes and my dad had a hangar there before he got one at c81.

My dad is also my neighbor, and everyone on this "island" has 5 acres parcels. Time bring the skid steer home take down some trees and make my own strip.
 
WDD said:
Lived in Lake Zurich just south of there for 10 year. Nice area, but given the way Illinois is now, I'd not want to own any property let alone a business there.
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I live in Wauconda. Business 4 minutes away. If you ever needed something fabricated or stopped in the bobcat dealer, were the fab shop. My dad owns the commercial building that were both in and despite saying numerous times that we're not building anything in this state, we're planning on building a new shop
 
kaiser said:
I wonder if we all chipped in here on the forum… got our community here to buy it - then we could rename it ‘PoA International Aerodrone’ (Bonanza Field)…

I’m good for $20!
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I'll set up the GoFundMe now. Anyone who donates 100k or more gets a .05 per gallon discount on fuel!
 
Racerx said:
Got to build A LOT of homes to make up for an 8 million dollar price tag.
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I was on the wait list there when I first moved up there but I got a hangar at 3CK before I got the call from Campbell.

Depends on what you call "a lot". I see $300k houses all around there. At that price, that's about 27 homes. If you did the usual "cram them in as tight as you can" then you put in 80 homes. Granted, there's rezoning and paying for the infrastructure. And it's less than a mile from a Metra station.

I wouldn't be surprised if a developer buys it.
 
donjohnston said:
I was on the wait list there when I first moved up there but I got a hangar at 3CK before I got the call from Campbell.

Depends on what you call "a lot". I see $300k houses all around there. At that price, that's about 27 homes. If you did the usual "cram them in as tight as you can" then you put in 80 homes. Granted, there's rezoning and paying for the infrastructure. And it's less than a mile from a Metra station.

I wouldn't be surprised if a developer buys it.
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Average profit for a builder is about 15%. That's 177 homes at 300k. Just to break even at 8mil. And that's without infrastructure and demo. Granted 8m is just the ask.
 
The $300k isn’t the cost of construction, though, right?

That is land and construction.

for each $300-400k home sold, a portion would be purchasing the underlying land (or covering that $8mm buy in - that $8mm wouldn’t have to be covered just from that 15% profit margin).
 
kaiser said:
I wonder if we all chipped in here on the forum… got our community here to buy it - then we could rename it ‘PoA International Aerodrone’
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Well ... if the 20,000 members of POA could all cough up a few hundred bucks your idea might work. Of course with that many owners the business meetings are gonna be fun! :rofl:
 
Daleandee said:
Well ... if the 20,000 members of POA could all cough up a few hundred bucks your idea might work. Of course with that many owners the business meetings are gonna be fun! :rofl:
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I'd imagine they'd go something like this...
 
Jim K said:
Damn. Cheaper than farmland.
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You know you're gonna need the room for your next planes anyway. Sell some of your farmland to buy this, then lease out the rest of the Champaign farmland, this farmland, the hangars, then you run an airport full of (mostly your) planes. :D

eta: I say 'mostly' because that RV is mine if you remember. Plus you could start that build assist center @AV8R_87 is talking you into.
 
Skyrys62 said:
You know you're gonna need the room for your next planes anyway. Sell some of your farmland to buy this, then lease out the rest of the Champaign farmland, this farmland, the hangars, then you run an airport full of (mostly your) planes. :D

eta: I say 'mostly' because that RV is mine if you remember. Plus you could start that build assist center @AV8R_87 is talking you into.
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Dude, if I was 10 years older....

I can't imagine a better retirement gig than running a small airport and working on airplanes.
 
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