Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 2, 2009

By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
The county has pulled the plug on an a hangar project at the Rowan County Airport.
County Attorney Jay Dees recently notified the developer, Alan Winninger of Davidson, that he had failed to meet the benchmarks for the proposed project.
Winninger had worked at the airport for a year or more representing Jet Logistics, a Raleigh company. Initially, he announced that several jets would be based at the airport, but that never materialized.
More recently, Winninger listed himself as business development director for High Rock Raceway.
Winninger had sought a ground lease from the county to build a hangar for corporate jets. In 2006, commissioners approved an option for lease with a condition that construction had to start on the hangar within six months of the site being ready.
The county hired a contractor to prepare the site for corporate hangars. The work required several months.
According to Dees and e-mails from the county, Winninger was notified in April that the site was ready for construction.
After questions arose from commissioners, Dees and County Manger Bill Cowan met with Winninger in October and notified him that his six months were up.
After Winninger questioned the timeline, the county agreed to extend the time to Dec. 15, specifying that Winninger had to have plans for the hangar to the county by Dec. 2 and construction would start by Dec. 15.
On Friday, Dec. 13, Dees notified Winninger that he failed to submit the plans by Dec. 2 and thereby could not meet the Dec. 15 date for start of construction.
“Rowan County considers the lease option null and void and you no longer have any right to lease areas at the airport,” Dees wrote in an e-mail to Winninger.
In response, Winninger threatened a lawsuit and cited various potential users of the hangar, including Virgin Charter and Pentastar Aviation as well as a local developer, Dan Fisher.
“We will await your lawsuit and gladly deal with it,” responded Dees, pointing out that Winninger had 18 months to produce something and did nothing.
Winninger subsequently apologized and urged the county to extend the ground lease to Fisher.
In his e-mail, Winninger wrote, “It is my intentions to prove to you and others that moving forward in a team effort for the better of the county we can develop a highly rated facility that will also allow us to move forward in the future on other projects to benefit the airport.”
Winninger was involved in various efforts to lure business to the airport. One venture targeted a California company that wanted to build a high-end corporate jet facility complete with condos to cater to the NASCAR set.
County officials were somewhat surprised when a Charlotte business publication announced the project as a done deal. Commissioners hadn’t taken any action and knew little about it. Commissioners essentially rejected the proposals after reviewing a nearly 100-page contract that would have virtually turned over the airport to the California company.
Commissioners have since decided that the county will build its own corporate hangars and lease space.
Contact Jessie Burchette at 704-797-4254 or jburchette@salisburypost.com.