Airport - Special Committee — April 22, 2026

How did they get money?

I forget which one he also was with.

The bootlegger.

That's not where all the money came from though.

Money came from selling, from buying the Merchandise Mart during World War II, which is the largest, second largest commercial real estate in America after what, the World Trade Center?

It was in Chicago.

It was something like 750,000 square feet of like office space.

He bought it dirt cheap during the Second World War because nobody was using it.

And then in 1955, he sold it for like— he bought it for like $5 million.

He sold it for like $90 million.

And that was 1950 dollars, so that's like $800 million.

All set?

Okay.

Good evening.

We are here for the special committee on the airport.

I am Councilor Leo Choquette, chair, and tonight we have my colleagues in government, Ward 2 City Councilor Scott Pemberton and Councilor at Large Mr. James Roy.

Thank you.

Note, this meeting is being live streamed and recorded.

City Council and committee meetings can be viewed on the City of New Bedford's homepage under Quick Links, then Meetings.

Tonight's agenda.

I have 2 letters to read into the record, Mr.

Chair.

This is from Councilor Lopes.

I am writing to inform you that I am unable to attend tonight's committee meeting due to a work-related commitment.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my absence.

I am writing to inform you that I am not able to attend tonight's committee meeting due to a prior commitment.

Please read this letter into the record to make my colleagues and the public aware of the reason for my absence.

Motion received and placed on file.

Second.

So moved.

All those in favor?

Say aye.

The ayes have it.

Item number 1.

Um, I'm assuming you want us to read 1, 1A, and 2 together?

Yes.

Yes, please.

Okay.

1 is a communication, Mayor Mitchell, to the City Council submitting the lease extension and the amendment on behalf of the New Bedford Airport Commission and Sandpiper Air Incorporated, Building 2, referred here on March 26, 2026.

Um, 1A is the order which was referred on March 26, 2026.

Written motion, Councillor Choquette requesting the airport manager Scott Service appear before the special committee on the airport to discuss the status of continuing upgrades to the New Bedford Municipal Airport in FY 2024-2025.

And that was referred here on the 13th of February, 2025.

1, 1A, and 2 are before you.

Motion received and placed on file.

Both items.

So moved.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay, um, so I'd like to start off by hearing from our airport director, Mr. Scott Service.

If you could please come up.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mr. Director.

Thank you for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

As a Ward 1 councilor and chair of the airport committee, I like to have you come in from time to time and give us an update on how things are proceeding at the airport.

You know, it's often not overlooked, but most people who, you know, tend to not use the airport kind of forget it's there.

So we obviously want to make sure that you know, you have a voice here and can keep us abreast of what's going on.

And, and you always have great briefings, so I figured I'd bring you in for April here.

And thank you.

You have the floor, sir.

Thank you.

I will just go straight to item number 1.

This is the Sandpiper lease.

An existing lease with us that expires March 31st, 2031.

They had recently renewed the lease for Sandpiper 1, a separate building, and they're looking to have this one run in conjunction with that one.

So 2 separate buildings, 2 separate leases, but run on the same timeline.

So we're looking to replace that lease that's expiring in 2031 with a new lease Um, it will be backdated to November 1st, 2022, so they can run concurrently.

It's an initial term of 30 years with 2 5-year options, provided they make a minimum of a $300,000 investment in the building.

That is a $300,000 investment in the building that is approved by the Airport Commission, so it can't just be them saving up receipts.

They've got to come in and do capital improvement projects because the buildings are starting to get on the older side.

And if they don't renew their lease, they turn it over to the airport, and we don't want to be left with buildings that are in disrepair.

So we required them to have investments in the building's infrastructure.

The lease is adjusted every 5 years per the airport leasing policy, which either will go up based on appraisals done by an independent appraiser or a previous 5-year CPI increase.

So that's the synopsis of the lease for them.

The only changes from the airport— or I'm sorry, the Sandpiper 1 lease— was this, this property does not have a fuel farm, so we took out the requirements for fuel farm insurance.

We added in the prohibitive acts of having a fuel farm.

They can change that if they so choose, but they would have to then go through the process to amend the lease for that.

We did leave in all the environmental concerns for fuel delivery because though they will not have a fuel farm, fuel trucks will fuel airplanes on their aprons, and we wanted to make sure that they had the insurance and all the safe precautions that are required for that so that environmentally we're not left hanging out with a problem in the future.

So that was item number 1.

Any questions on that, colleagues?

Any questions for direct-to-service in particular?

Pretty standard lease.

Yes, yes.

Okay.

We standardized at least probably 3 years ago, um, with a new format.

And most of the conversations we have with everybody is, except for like fuel farms and fuel deliveries and services they provide, is a standard lease that they all sign.

You know, if you're opening a hangar, then we prohibit certain acts like commercial activity and such.

If they having an FBO, fixed base operator, and they're allowed to have commercial acts, but, you know, they have to carry the extra insurance that would go with it.

So it's almost a duplicate of the Sandpiper 1 lease.

Okay, thank you.

Um, without any objection from my colleagues, I would like to ask a question.

Um, how many Hayners and/or you know, structures does Sandpiper Air already lease from us, if any?

Or is it— they have 2 hangars, Sandpiper 1, which is, um, the smaller building, and Sandpiper 2, the larger building and the larger apron space.

Sandpiper 1 has the fuel farm associated with it.

That was the lease that was previously approved.

Sandpiper 2 has the larger apron space and is used to receive the private airplanes and GA folks that fly in.

They have the bathrooms and the front-end stuff, and they also do aircraft maintenance.

Okay.

Also, um, and I apologize, Mr. Director, if you already mentioned it, but what is the car— the price per square foot that we're charging for this?

Price per square foot, I believe, is 30 cents I wish my mortgage company had that similar mortgage for my house.

That would be great.

Yes, yes, 30 cents per square foot, and then that's readjusted every 5 years either based on a new appraisal or based on a cumulative CPI increase from the previous 5 years.

Okay.

And in your opinion, is that, is that a comp— you know, is that an adequate price?

Um, competitive?

Yeah, we had an appraisal done back, I believe, in 2020 that set that price so that we brought everybody to the same standard.

Okay, excellent.

Um, You've answered all my questions.

Once again, my colleagues have any questions?

No.

Yeah.

Oh, Councilor Roy.

How much, you know, like new hangar comes more, more airplane traffic, right?

How much more traffic do we expect to see with, with, you know, with the increased activity?

So this is an existing hangar.

Okay.

So other than folks flying in to have their airplane fixed that they can't fix at other airports, which would be very hard to predict, okay, it shouldn't add a whole lot of activity to things.

Great.

Thank you.

Yeah.

And so that where that hangar is currently located, that is on a different area that, that's up right near the main airport building, correct?

Uh, airport terminal's right here.

Yep.

Our maintenance building is over here.

This is Sandpiper 1.

This is Sandpiper 2, their second building that they're renewing the lease from.

Okay.

It's off at the airport road.

Okay, excellent.

Okay, um, I think he's gone.

I have no further questions.

If my colleagues are satisfied, I would like to have Attorney David Gorotowski please come up to the podium.

Sure.

Thank you, Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Director.

Good evening, Attorney Gortowski.

Yes, I just wanted to, you know, get your opinion.

So this— I mean, by your, your legal standards, this is a pretty standard lease, right?

You didn't see anything out of the ordinary or anything?

Well, yeah, I mean, I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

It's just a matter of what policy you determine for these, if you think they're appropriate, the amounts of the— that they're— the amount that's in there, whether Sandpiper is the right fit for that.

The only one— the one issue that I thought I don't know the answer to that came up is in the lease there's this— the taxes have to be paid by Sandpiper.

So the lessee pays the taxes, but right under that in the lease, there's a provision that says in lieu of taxes, they can pay a franchise fee that is equal to up to 100% of the taxes.

So I'm not sure under— and it's at the lessee's option.

So I'm not sure what the— what I don't know is what the advantage would be, or why the lessee would choose to pay a franchise fee in lieu of taxes rather than the taxes if they're the same amount.

So I'm not sure why that provision's in there.

Maybe— I don't know if the solicitor's office knows or Mr. Service knows, but that was the only the one thing that stuck out to me, that they are required to pay the taxes on the property, but I'm not sure why that's in there.

If, um, if they can choose a franchise fee in lieu of taxes that are the same.

I'm not sure now that it's municipal property.

I'm not even sure whether it has a value that we assign a tax, property tax to it.

So those are just some of the things that came out when I was looking at it.

But other than that, I don't see anything unusual about it, only those that tax issue that I, I wasn't clear, and maybe the people who drafted it and negotiated the lease may have further information about how that— why that's structured that way, because I don't know.

That's one thing I think that the council may want to know, because someone could ask you, what is the taxes and what is the franchise fee and how does that work?

That I think it's something maybe you want to get an answer to before before you approve it.

That's the only thing I could think of.

All right, Councilor Roy.

I think that was my question.

Um, do we know who the franchise fee gets paid to?

Like, is it— um, let me see if I can find it.

Yeah, so, and what happens now?

Are they paying— what are they paying?

Are they paying the franchise fee?

Are they paying— are they choosing to pay the tax?

Okay, so, so yeah, it says on— if it's page 20, it's, it's paragraph O, it's entitled Taxes.

Says the lessee must pay as they become due and payable before becoming delinquent all taxes, inclusive of real estate taxes, both general and special assessments lawfully charged.

And then that's part 1.

So it basically says lessee must pay the taxes.

I don't know whether this property has a tax— has a value under the assessment.

For taxes, because if it's city property, I'm not sure that it has that.

Um, and then on number 2, it says at the lessee's option, lessee may pay in lieu of taxes established under Chapter 59, Section 2B, entitled Taxation of Public Land Leased for Commercial Purposes, a franchise fee equal to an amount up to 100% of the real estate taxes as established by the taxing authority, which I guess would be the city.

Lessee shall have a right to seek an abatement or reduction on grounds of overvaluation.

So I guess my first question would be, is this, as city property, a taxable entity?

We're not taxing the airport, right?

That's why I'm not sure what that, that's in there for and what all that means.

And if we are assigning a value to it for commercial tax purposes, because it's being taxed at a commercial rate, what would be the issue of them choosing a franchise fee And would we negotiate some different amount than the taxes owed?

Because it says up to 100%.

Would we negotiate some fee in lieu of taxes lower than that?

I'm not sure.

So I don't, I don't know the answers to that, but I, I'm just looking at it and thinking there's some reason it's in there.

Um, and that might be just something you might want to inquire before it goes— the council ultimately approves it.

I don't know if they have the answers to that tonight, but before the council ultimately approves, I think maybe we get some answers about what that is, because of course everyone's sensitive about taxes these days, especially with, you know, budgetary issues and things.

So I thought it might be something that you guys want to make sure you're aware of before, just so you have the answers.

That's all.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Attorney Gortowski.

Director Service, would you like to come back up and maybe shed some light on our conundrum?

I'm sure.

So Sandpiper does pay taxes to the city of New Bedford.

All of our tenants do pay taxes.

I'm going to guess that the franchise fee part of that is for entities like Massport, where they own a vast sum of land and they operate kind of like their own entity where they pay taxes on the entire land that is there.

So then they would then charge their subtenants a franchise fee to be reimbursed for those taxes at the same rate.

That would not necessarily apply in this case because they do pay taxes.

Even our tenants that are wholly inside the fence with no street access do pay property taxes, and they pay the commercial rate for property taxes.

Okay, so either way they are going to pay taxes.

It's not like a fork in the lease where it may or may not— no, and up to 100%, may be up to 100% of taxes.

Okay.

They're public-facing.

And if something happens and, you know, you pay taxes for emergency services, if you need police, fire, EMS, and that— and this is a very public-facing company that would, you know, need to pay taxes for all those, never mind the maintenance of the roads and everything else.

And their duty to the community.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, recommendations?

Motion to refer out to the full city council.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay, that's for approval, council.

Yes, that's how you do it, right?

Yeah, I don't think I've ever done this one before, but motion— yeah, for approval, right?

Yep.

Okay.

And that's just the order, obviously.

So moved.

Yeah, you have— you said the order in the attached lease because the order references the lease.

Okay, okay, okay.

So, so moved.

All right, now for the laser light show, Mr. Director.

It used to pop up one at a time.

Now it just scrolls, but that's okay.

Maybe I'm using a different format.

Um, we're proceeding forward with plans for the air traffic control tower.

Um, currently we're in negotiations with MassDOT Aeronautics and the developer— or I'm sorry, the designer— for the 10% design of the air traffic control tower.

This part will determine The ground that's underneath it, what type of construction, whether they can do the formed concrete structure, if it's a steel structure, if it has a poor foundation, the look of the facility.

The picture you're seeing of the tower is just a concept picture.

That is not what it will look like.

It's just kind of give you an idea.

That's a similar tower at a similar height of what we're building.

This is not going to be an enormous building that stands, you know, I believe that one is 54 feet to the roof and 84 feet to the top of an antenna.

So it's, it's not going to be that tall of a building.

We have done early concepts on the roadway in for a circular roadway and then an area on the side that if the fire department needs to come through a gate and there's some emergency, they'd be able to then you know, get a ladder truck up and do what they needed to do.

So that 10% design is going to determine most of kind of what it looks like, that roadway, and what we need for that.

Most of the facilities that a tower is going to have are set by the FAA.

They have a minimum standard.

That'll be the minimum standard that we're most likely going to follow for this.

We're not going to be putting in a steam room or a gym or anything crazy.

I'm sure they would like it, but, um, that's not what we're going to pay for for them.

Just in case you aren't all aware of where Aviation Way is, off Jones Street, Lang Street, Aviation Way, which is an unapproved roadway.

The air traffic control tower would go over here.

It would leave future demounts for future hangars on this side and that side.

This one will require a parallel taxiway to come up to it to service them to come in and out.

That's just kind of our future plans for our airport layout, but we're hoping that the air traffic control tower will promote some development in that area.

Because right now the biggest drawback to that is utilities.

You'd have to bring all the utilities down either from Jones Street or Lang Street to that site.

So by placing the air traffic controller there, they have a good view of the airport, no obstructions to the ends of the runways that they currently have, which is an improved safety factor, modern amenities.

They are operating out of a 1951 tower.

It's got heat air conditioning problems.

It's got a wood panel deck that every time we upgrade things to it, they've got to try to retrofit into a space or cut the counter apart to put it in.

So the new one will be more state-of-the-art, safer, and more effective, which is good because we've got about 70,000 operations a year.

We're the 6th busiest airport in the state.

After Logan, Worcester, and then talk at the Vineyard.

We go back and forth with Hyannis, but we, we passed them last year for operations.

Second half of this project that we'll be entering is working with the design team at MassDOT.

We're trying to finalize the scope for the 10% design of the terminal building.

This is, again, it's just a concept picture of new terminal building here, rerouting the access roads so that people are just transiting can come through here.

The folks from the parking lot or the playground do not have to walk to the main traffic back and forth.

We have not determined the size of the building nor the amenities that will be in the building.

We've got a minimum wish list.

We are applying for FAA grants.

The FAA is very limited on what they pay for.

They will only pay for public use spaces, not offices, not areas that you can then rent out and get revenue generation like restaurants or Avis Budget rent-a-cars.

MassDOT has a lax set of rules comparatively, so they will pay for some of that stuff.

So we haven't made any hard determinations because originally this project was planned at a 95% state, 5% local share, and we don't want to try to include so many wants on the— in this project.

That this turns into an 80/20 split and makes it very expensive to the city of New Bedford.

We want to try to figure out how we can keep that cost most effective.

Next project we have is Taxiway Bravo relocation.

This will be just from Taxiway Alpha is the terminal buildings here, Taxiway Alpha, crossing 533 up to Taxiway Kilo.

The pavement condition is at about a 50 PSI— that's a PCI, Pavement Condition Index— as gauged, so it's available for reconstruction.

They're going to be moving it closer to Runway 14-32 to meet the modern-day design standards.

So that's— we are in the environmental permitting stage.

Next year we will be in the design stage.

The year after that would be construction for that.

That hopefully will open up some space in the future.

The other project that we have, we recently put out some bids for a new snowblower.

And a new— I'll call it a light-duty plow truck.

It is the biggest truck that you can get that you do not need a CDL license to operate with a 10-foot plow.

This one has a straight plow.

It's just an example of what the truck would look like.

We're looking for more of the V-plow on the front of it.

It's very hard for city employees to get CDLs under the new Mass regulations, so we're looking to expand expand our fleet a little bit for operators that do not need a CDL that can help remove snow.

And the new snowblower is to replace a 1998 Oshkosh that we can no longer purchase parts for.

So it still runs and we'll keep it as a backup for as long as we can, but without being able to get parts for it, we wouldn't have made it through 37 inches of snow without that.

Scott, the airport takes care of its own snow?

Yes.

As far— like, different from how the rest of the snow is taken care of in the city?

So the rest of the city, from what I understand— and Jay— oh no, he's changing.

He's not here.

Um, we don't have a snow budget.

We have an overtime budget.

We don't pull from the snow budget.

We don't pull from city resources.

We have the equivalent of 31 miles of streets, except they're now runways, taxiways, and aprons.

We have 4 full-time airport technicians, 1 part-time, 1 manager, and 1 assistant manager.

Comparatively, how that compares to other airports, peer airports, and ours, we have 1/4 of their staffing.

I'm not asking for new people.

I understand the constraints.

That just means you have 4 times the fun.

We have 4 times the fun, sure.

But this equipment allows us to move snow.

And with 37 inches of snow, I'm not going to say it was easy, but we opened 4 or 5 days sooner than Hyannis, sooner than Nantucket, and sooner than Martha's Vineyard.

We were the first airport in southeastern Massachusetts to open after that snowstorm because we have the equipment, we have the personnel, and they're dedicated.

And kudos to them because We never would do it without all that.

It's a very small staff comparatively, but I'm very proud of what we do and how we do.

And part of that does go into— we've got a nice setup for runways and cross-sections and taxiways and makes it efficient.

Some have it— some others have a different setup that's less efficient, and that works in our benefit.

But our snowblower from 1998 is starting to get on the old side.

So replacing that with a new machine ensures that we'll have something, because our trucks— we've got some good-sized trucks that can push snow, but they couldn't push 3 feet of snow in one pass.

We needed something to open that up.

Um, just lost my train of thought.

Sorry.

That's okay.

Uh, before we— before you jump back in there, sure.

Could I have one of my colleagues make a motion to receive and place on file the presentation?

Motion to receive and place on file the airport 2026 briefing.

Second.

Okay.

Thank you.

So moved.

Okay.

Sorry, Mr. Director.

That's okay.

The reason we're getting the snow equipment removal now— equipment now is we got some BIL money.

That is 95% FAA, 2.5% state, 2.5% local.

So we can purchase $1.1 million worth of equipment for snow removal for a local share of about $27,000, and the airport can pay the local share of $27,000.

So for the taxpayers, this is zero, but for the airport, it's going to replace 2 key pieces of equipment.

Again, the old snowblower from 1998 and the previous truck that filled this little red truck that actually we'll paint painted yellow when we purchase it.

That was a 1983 Chevy K30 that we're replacing with that, which I don't even think it has an AM radio.

But that is that is the end of my presentation unless there are questions on.

Things.

I did not include on this, you know, costs for new terminal tower.

We, we had early, early estimates for tower terminal, but until we determine exactly what footprint we have and everything else, if we go through the 10% design, we're talking theory more than realism of what the cost of those buildings would be.

And what the funding would be.

And I think that would be a better conversation once we have those numbers so that everybody knows exactly what the airport will ask to bond to pay for those and, you know, what we get for that money.

Okay, um, so just for the benefit of me, my colleagues, they may not have heard or seen the presentation before, and also for anybody who's watching this who's curious where the money's coming from Could you tell us again, you know, that I think it was, what, $76 million total and like $73 million would be coming from state and federal sources and the city would only have to come up with $3 million?

Sure.

So the initial estimation for it was about $70 million.

That was 3 years ago.

If we apply the normal escalator, that would be about $76 million in today dollars.

One of the projects that we're not going after right now is the ARF SRE, and that's the fire station slash snow removal.

That's our maintenance building.

We'll be holding off on that part of the project.

So that's $16 million off of that.

That brings us down to $60 million, about $20 million for a tower.

And about $40 million for a terminal.

The split on that for initial assessments, assessments from the state of Massachusetts and the Secretary of Transportation was a 95% state, 5% local.

So for about $3 million local share, we would leverage $70 million or $67 million worth of state funding.

And again, those are just the early estimates based on a square footage of how big the buildings they thought would be required for this.

Again, that's subject to change.

That's why I really— when we get that 10% design, that's that key moment where we'll have actual numbers of how much it will cost for each building and be able to do the math and figure out whether it's the right move or not the right move.

Okay.

All right.

Um, again, any of my colleagues, do you have any additional questions?

I don't, Chair.

No.

Okay.

Council President?

No, he actually, uh, answered all the questions in his presentation, so thank you.

Great, uh, presentation.

You answered what I was going to ask you, so thank you.

Yep.

Okay.

Well, at that time, uh, could I entertain a motion to refer out for no further action?

I make a motion to refer out, no further action.

Second.

Is there a second?

All right, uh, all those in favor?

Aye.

All right, so moved.

Uh, now the agenda, uh, we have come to the end.

There is nothing further pending.

Motion to adjourn.

Yes, thank you.

Okay, all those in favor?

Aye.

All right, so moved.

We are ending the meeting at 7:06.

Thank you very much.