Heliplex Development

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Today we shift over to the airport and discuss the heliplex that was announced a couple of weeks ago out of the blue.

First, I want to preface this by saying that I am not opposed to the idea. Perhaps it is a good thing to bring to the Inverness airport. I have seen some of the discussion for this and apparently we would have the only facility like this within 80 miles or so. I can see that being a competitive advantage if we are trying to lure other companies here.

The issue that I have with it is how it has been approached. We will dive into that a bit below. There has been some discussion here and there about doing this project, but no real formal presentation to the board of what it will look like, the vision for this project and so on. By all appearances, it is being done to help a friend of a commissioner move her business to Citrus County. Not necessarily a bad thing, but have that discussion publicly and show the public what the plan is for this facility, which will require tax dollars to pay for... tax dollars that are needed for other projects as well.

How will taking tax dollars that could go toward the roads or other projects like the animal shelter help this county and its citizens more than using them for the mentioned projects? Do people want a heliplex they likely will never use or roads paved they drive on every day?

Showing the plans and vision for this facility will go a long way towards showing the citizens what they are paying for.

How much revenue will this facility produce for the county? How long will it take the county to recoup its investment? What is the estimate for the total number of jobs this will produce? What is its effect on the local economy?

We can say that it will produce jobs all day long, but how many will that be?

What is the benefit of having a heliplex? Is this the best use of the airport facilities?

Where has that discussion been? If it has been had, who is having it?

Further, one of my concerns with just handing out leases and hangars is that there is no application process. I spoke with a commissioner a few months ago and said: "What is the process if a company wants a hangar? Just ask their commissioner friend and they can get put at the top of the list to get one?" They agreed that there needed to be a better process.

There needs to be an application process for this. There needs to be a proposal sent to the county and then presented to the BOCC. Let them decide which companies they want to see come here... or at the very least, let staff go through the applications/proposals and present their suggestions to the board. Explain why that company is a good fit for that hangar space.

This keeps the process transparent and allows anyone with ideas to present them to the county for discussion. I have heard of someone doing just that with one of the commissioners but apparently they were not given the time of day. Doing an application process opens that possibility. Let them present their business plan and how it can fit with the plan for the airport.... but again, a plan is needed.

All that said, let's get into the details.

To get started, let us go back to 2022. I won't re-hash all the details, but Andy and Right Rudder went to the county to try to get a grant to allow them to build a new hangar at the airport. The idea was to expand their services and also bring in WTC to create an FAA Mechanics program.

The BOCC voted to file that for that grant, but apparently they did not receive it.

Fast forward to August 8, 2023, Right Rudder's lease is coming up for renewal. He made a presentation to the board and had a desire to build a 50k sqft hangar using his own money or money he got via private equity. In return, he would have wanted to have a 50 year lease for that facility, similar to how the county gave 50 year ground leases for other privately built hangars on the airport.

Some things got confused in his presentation and the BOCC thought he was asking for a 50 year FBO lease, to which they declined. A bit of a back and forth over the next month or so, but they renewed his lease for the 2nd 5 year term per the contract.

There were other grant applications filed for a hangar for Right Rudder, but no need to dive into all those. Point here is to show there has been a desire for sometime to add a hangar at the Inverness airport to expand operations.

About 8 months before the renewal, Alonda with Livewire Aviation pops into the county for an introduction. My understanding of things, she was friends with former commissioner Ruthie Schlabach. She has also been in Citrus for awhile, as she was instrumental in the noise ordinance on the Homosassa River.

But she makes the formal ask for a meeting to discuss bringing her business to Citrus.

At some point between the end of January and May 3, 2023, a new hangar was being discussed and Alonda was given priority to it.

June 6, 2023 was an aviation workshop at the BOCC. This is the first time that I can find the heliplex idea was mentioned.

As part of this meeting, staff made a presentation on the Inverness airport. They showed the then Master Plan of the airport.

But staff made note of the proposed heliplex, which was not part of this master plan. They mentioned they spoke to the FDOT about switching grant funds from T-Hangars, which they originally wanted to a Box Hangar for Alonda, which the FDOT said would be fine. The plan was that the heliplex would go next to the new business park facility on this drawing.

This is the first meeting that Alonda's Livewire Aviation was discussed. It was presented by both Schlabach and commissioner Rebecca Bays.

Bays said in addition to Alonda coming to Citrus County:

"Looking at creating a heliplex so that we can move the helicopter for the ambulance service down there, moving the Sheriff's helicopter down there..."

Then went into a discussion about how fixed wing aircraft needs to be separated from helicopters and other potential issues that would need to be addressed to do this and so on.

Staff then tapped the brakes a bit on the heliplex idea. Then economic director Frank Calascione told Bays that the county has money for a single hangar and that Alonda was first on the list. However, that is different than building a heliplex, which requires multiple hangars and businesses. He said it was too early to start changing the airport master plan to do all of that, unless the consultants said that was the future of that airport... to which he then suggested they would have that conversation.

But for now, a single hangar was all the money they had to work with.

Bays did not really like that answer and stated:

"This is also a very difficult situation. We actually have someone that wants to make an investment here, but on the flip side of it, they have to have a level of certainty... They want to know where we are going . They want to know what our future plans are. They want to know how this is going to look before they make a commitment."

Ok fair point. She wants to know what the plan for this airport is and thinks that anyone wanting to bring their business here wants to know that as well.

Now, later at the regular BOCC meeting on that same day, the BOCC approved an application for funding to build a 24k sqft commercial hangar. This grant would be from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO)

The resolution also pointed to a commercial hangar that will create and estimated 170 jobs due to the activities that will take place in that hangar:

"aviation maintenance, aviation storage, aviation mechanic training, flight training, aircraft assembly, aircraft sales and aircraft repair"

There was an email that went out to stakeholders like the chamber asking them to send a letter of support so they can include that in the grant application package. This is the letter from the Chamber. Interestingly, it mentions Right Rudder using the hangar, NOT Livewire aviation.

Alonda included a letter on behalf of Livewire Aviation. But also mentions the need for more space. She mentions that they would like 50k sqft, but would settle on other options.

Interesting thing to note here... Her interest is contingent on the airport organization and upkeep. Fast forward two years and Right Rudder is getting their lease terminated and the county is trying to evict them, but Livewire gets the hangar. Coincidence?

This is also the last talk of any new hangar for Right Rudder. Everything from here on out is focused on Alonda, as she was #1 on the list despite coming in after Right Rudder, who is now #2 in line.

Ok, so application for the DEO grant was applied for.

In an email to Bays, Calascione is talking about the hangars. The county at this time has applications for the DEO grant, but they will also be applying for a smaller corporate hangar of 12k sqft. This grant would be through the FDOT.

This smaller hangar was dedicated to Alonda and Livewire.

He mentions a problem with the DEO grant. They want certain job numbers, which you saw from the resolution. Calascione acknowledges that this likely wont be approved as a hangar for Livewire as it won't hit the job numbers FL Commerce is looking for, hence the need for the other application.

Also around this time, Bays and Alonda go out to dinner with Daniel, our consultant for the airport business park

In December, the county applies for a grant from FDOT to build a Corporate Hangar.

This FDOT grant is the one that was ultimately approved and awarded. However, I want to point out one thing. Here are some terms stated in the application and agreed to by the county upon applying for those funds.

Notice this is talking about the airport master plan. Remember that presentation in July? There was no heliplex facility designated on the master plan. So again, when did that get added to the master plan and does that change the grant funding from FDOT? The master plan had to be approved by FDOT for the grant approval.

A heliplex is not consistent with the masterplan that was in place for this application. Did they get approval from FDOT for the change?

Now, February 2024, the county begins an update for the master plan for the Inverness airport. This is paid for in part by grant money and will be performed by our airport consultant Infrastructure Consulting and Engineering (ICE). They will evaluate the needs for the airport and all of that.

Here is a text from Alonda to Bays regarding the reimbursement schedule for the grant funding for the master plan

This was sent after a dinner meeting with Alonda and Bays.

This grant was not approved until September 2024.

To my knowledge, this master plan update has not been completed nor has it been presented to the BOCC. I do not know if it needs to be approved by them or not.

Speaking of master plan, this was provided to Bays to take to Tallahassee in January 2024. It was produced by Daniel from ICE. When I asked for the work order on this and the purchase order to show the payment, I was told that this was not approved by the county and that it was not a county project. It was paid for by a 3rd party but I was not told who paid for it or how much. ICE could have also donated their time for this, but who knows. I presume Alonda was involved because she has emails back and forth with Daniel to make changes to this. She also emails it to Bays for final approval.

But as you can see... An official looking document that was being presented to Tallahassee to help boost the Inverness Airport.

This is the first time that the heliplex was "officially" mentioned. This page shows the then current master plan at the top and the future plan for the Inverness airport at the bottom.

A closer look.

Area 3 is the heliplex development. Also surprising on this graphic is that apparently there are plans to develop the fairgrounds (#8). I am sure the Citrus County Fair association and race track will be thrilled to know that the county wants them gone and they are "officially" planning that area for development.

One other key thing in this document is the Heli-plex development apparently has plans.

But this plan has never been presented to the board, although the booklet did go through to various staff members.

This "master plan" graphic is later presented to the BOCC as part of the Airport Financial Analysis Study on May 14th, 2024.

This is the meeting that Alonda had a meeting with staff about BEFORE it was presented to the public.

And a private meeting with Daniel and Bays the day before.

OK. Fast forward to August 2025. This is where the BOCC agrees to the lease terms with Alonda/Livewire Aviation.

Notice it says "Non-Commercial Hangar". This entire time the BOCC has been talking about a "Corporate" hangar with the idea that she could relocate her business operations here and move them to the airport.

Further, the lease says:

Use of the Premises: Tenant's use of the Premises is expressly limited to the operation and maintenance of a non-commercial hangar for the storage of aircraft owned and operated by Tenant...

That does not sound like moving her business to the airport, unless she planned to operate out of Homosassa, as her LLC lists the address and just store the helicopters at the airport.

In any case, it appears the first leg of the heliplex is complete with this first hangar.

April 9, 2025, Daniel sends an email to Todd talking about a second corporate hangar for Inverness. This one appears to be earmarked for Air Methods.

Seems to be same design as the first hangar for Alonda

Then comes to push to bring all this information to the groundbreaking announcement for the 2nd phase of the business park. This is in regards to making boards to display at the groundbreaking event.

And the fee for doing the conceptual drawings. This will come out of the reserve contingency for the project, so it is money already budgeted.

Then the announcement was made for this on November 14th.

So the question I have here is what is the full vision for this complex? What is the business plan so to speak?

Again, I am not opposed to the idea, but what is the plan? How does this help create jobs and what kind of jobs are they creating and how many?

I get it is hard to answer these without having businesses in place, but I presume there will be a recruiting effort of some kind. What types of businesses are they wanting to bring to this heliplex?

I have seen them mention Air Methods and the Sheriff's office. We already have those here. They would just be moving from their current location down to the heliplex complex. That does not create more jobs.

That is spending tax dollars on relocating them to one area, but not new business.

What is the plan for those other spaces once they are moved down?

Again, tell the public what the plan and goals are and how all of this will help Citrus County. As it is, the public has no clue what the plans are for this facility.