Airport pulls $11.5M New College land sale request

Sensing that the Federal Aviation Administration’s recently released guidance regarding uncertainty of future airport needs to accommodate vertical take-off and landing vehicles will result in denial, the Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority has withdrawn its request to sell 30 acres to New College of Florida.

Submitted Jan. 9, the airport authority announced Tuesday it will no longer seek the request for release of land from the FAA as guidance released by the agency the day prior to submittal suggests the needs to accommodate electric take-off and landing (eVTOL) and drone aircraft as that technology further develops are currently unknown.

In April, the FAA denied the proposed $11.5 million land deal without citing the updated guidance — a decision the authority promptly appealed. It had been waiting a decision on that appeal.

In June, Sarasota-Manatee International Airport President and CEO Rick Piccolo told the Sarasota Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer, that the airport had plenty of land to address general aviation needs at full build-out, which at the time included no consideration for vertiport operations outside of the airfield.

Since 2016, the authority has attempted to convey the land it leases to New College , whose lease with the airport will expire in 2056. The concern of both the SMAA and the college is that, when the 100-year, undervalued lease does expire, FAA requirements to pay full market value on land it conveyed for civil aviation use will render it unaffordable. 

New College currently uses the 31 acres immediately adjacent to Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport for student housing, intramural fields, parking and education space.

“The request was an effort to solve several issues including eliminating an antiquated lease, put in place restrictive easements to protect the airport’s aeronautical surfaces, provide additional resources for the airport to address its capital needs and preclude any future dispute over the East campus of New College,” Piccolo says in a statement.

Piccolo says it became evident that, with the advent of eVTOL and drone technology, neither which require runway access, the FAA was not agreeable to approving a land release at SRQ, or any other airport, when the potential impacts are unclear.

What is clear is that the technology is advancing on electric-powered aircraft that have a range of 150 to 200 miles, far enough to transport passengers and freight to metropolitan areas such as Tampa and Orlando. Dubbed “vertiports,” there are such facilities in Dallas and Chicago. 

“They go straight up and straight down, so you don't really need access to the runway,” Piccolo tells the Sarasota Observer about the vehicle technology. “It’s kind of a vertical airport. You could have one in the middle of downtown Sarasota for that matter.”

Referencing the 32-gate, full buildout plan of the airport that would not encroach on the New College site, “That's all great, but here's this new technology that doesn't need access to a runway,” Piccolo says. “Could a vertiport go there sometime in the future? No one knows for sure, but it is a very big topic.”

Piccolo says vertiports were a huge topic of discussion during a recent Florida airports conference in Miami. 

“There (are) states trying to look at what's the future of vertiports, especially in Florida because it'll probably be one of the first places they're using it,” Piccolo says. “So if you're going to Fort Myers for the day, where there is no intrastate service, you go to the vertiport, you get in this electric vehicle, and 15 minutes later you're there.”

Where does all this uncertainty leave New College? The school had been developing plans to invest in the site — in part to accommodate its National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic facilities ambitions and renovation or replacement of the aging Pei dormitories. 

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“While disappointed that the transaction could not be completed, we are grateful for the effort of the Airport Authority,” says New College President Richard Corcoran in a statement. "New College will continue to cooperate on future development matters. In the meantime, this will free up college resources to continue improving the campus.”

Meanwhile, Piccolo says the airport will continue to work with New College to ensure the long-term needs of both the airport and the school are aligned.

“Hopefully, as the requirements of new technologies become clearer, it will give FAA clarity on potential land use provisions,” Piccolo says. 

That clarity may arrive as the FAA continues to develop guidance over whether vertiport and commercial aviation activities can co-exist on the same airfield. 

“That's the unknown right now,” Piccolo says. “There are also airspace issues, but in their guidance it was that we have all this new technology and we really don't know how these things will be integrated, so let's be very conservative with what we do with land releases.”

This article originally appeared on sister site YourObserver.com.