Fort Wayne, Indiana: Airport selling land to Franklin Electric Company.

The Fort Wayne-Allen County Airport Authority agreed Monday to sell Franklin Electric Co. the land needed for the company’s multimillion-dollar headquarters and engineering center.

The property in the 9300 block of Coverdale Road will be sold at $9,300 per acre. Between 2 and 3 acres will be parceled out for utility easements and a substation, said Torrance Richardson, the airport’s executive director.

“Once that is done, we should have a final agreement,” Richardson said. “We’ve got the numbers, but when we get the (revised) appraisal, we should be closer to a final agreement.”

Franklin Electric Co. recently announced plans to move its headquarters from Bluffton to Allen County, investing up to $30 million on the 110,000-square-foot project. The company is expected to create 35 new jobs that pay an average of $38 an hour.

Officials expect to occupy the new building by mid-2013.

In other business:

• The Airport Authority transferred a lease for Smith Field Air Services from the estate of the late Dr. Stephen Hatch to Sweet Aviation LLC, owned by Chuck Surack.

Hatch, a local physician, and his wife were killed June 24 after his single-engine plane crashed near the Charlevoix (Mich.) Municipal Airport.

•A change in the airport’s rates and charges regulations would benefit the airport’s four auto leasing dealerships. A customer appreciation charge of $1.50 per day will be added to rental contracts, with the monies going to make facility improvements to the auto rental business area, Richardson said.

There is a four-day or $6 maximum on the surcharge, he said.

• Logistics Inside Corp. will lease a portion of the old Kitty Hawk cargo facility at the airport. The four-year lease will begin Sept. 5 for 105,000-square-feet with a monthly rent of $23,608.

The airport authority built the cargo hub for freight hauler Kitty Hawk with a $24 million bond and added an aircraft ramp for $10 million.

Kitty Hawk began operations in July 1999 but filed for bankruptcy Oct. 15, 2007. Kitty Hawk was paying $2.4 million annually on a 20-year lease on its space, but the airport authority had to pick up that bill when Kitty Hawk shuttered operations here.

• A public hearing will be held on the airports’ proposed 2012 budget on Sept. 26.

Source:  http://www.journalgazette.net