Fly Boys

Commercial real estate broker Michael Gallatin occasionally greets visitors at an airport hangar he has listed for sale with this celebrated tagline: Welcome to the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

It's tongue-in-cheek, yet apropos. The hangar, at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, is indeed in some rare air. Listed as Hangar #1, it's a 20,000-square-foot luxury-embedded abode that can store an array of vehicles and planes. “I don't think there is a hangar like this for sale in the state of Florida,” says Larry Smith, who runs the hangar for its owner, Bradenton entrepreneur Bill Mullis.

The hangar features three full restrooms with showers; a ground-floor kitchen with high-end European appliances; and 2,500 square feet of office space on the second floor. The gray epoxy floors on the ground level, meanwhile, have been redone twice in four years. That cost $65,000 each time, says Gallatin, with the Sarasota office of Sperry Van Ness.

The unique aspects of Hangar #1, however, present Gallatin with a distinct challenge in finding buyers. The property was put on the market Nov 18. The asking price is $2.75 million.
Gallatin has taken several specific marketing steps for the listing. The steps include:

• Reaching out to British airline mogul Richard Branson. Gallatin contacted Branson through a friend who is an executive at Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways;

• Contacting officials with Faith Life Church, a Missouri-based congregation that's expanding to Lakewood Ranch. Gallatin says since the church practices prosperity gospel, its leaders could be in need of an airport hangar;

• Sorting through Federal Aviation Administration records to find planes that takeoff and land frequently at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport. Gallatin sent marketing packets directly to some owners of those planes, a mix of corporations and individuals.

Mullis, a pioneer in the professional employment organization industry, built the hangar in 2007. The project cost at least $2 million, say Smith and Gallatin, including $400,000 for the second-floor office build-out. Mullis uses the hangar to store cars, planes and the occasional helicopter. Mullis operates a drag racing team, and he stores trailers in there, too.

The hangar is also currently a storage home to a pair of Russian MiG-23 fighter jets. The planes are fully functional, sans rockets. A friend of Mullis' owns the planes; the jets aren't included in the sale of the hangar.