Non-aviation rent at Kodiak Airport starts at twice recent aviation rates

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is taking sealed bids through Nov. 17 to lease a half-acre lot at Kodiak Airport to a business that doesn't involve aviation. The minimum rent is roughly twice what the state has recently charged aviation businesses at the same airport.

The lot is 23,364 square feet, and the minimum bid is $8,761.50 a year. That's based on what the department's invitation to bid calls the "standard non-aeronautical use rental rate for the Kodiak Airport," 37.5 cents a square foot. The highest qualified bid wins, and it sets the rent for the entire lease.

Aviation tenants at the airport have recently been offered land for less, according to the department's public notices. Maritime Helicopters was offered a five-year extension last year on about 47,500 square feet for $10,312.74 a year, about 22 cents a square foot. Two private owners of a hangar lot were offered an extension on 4,000 square feet at $625 a year, about 16 cents. In 2022, Kodiak Airport Properties was offered a 25-year lease at about 18 cents. The per-foot figures are Alaska News calculations from the notices, which give only annual rent and lot size.

Those aviation leases were offered without competition, under a state law that lets the department extend leases or grant follow-on leases to existing tenants. The non-aviation lot goes to the highest bidder.

The notices don't say how the rates were set. At Anchorage's airport, the state proposed an aviation lease at Lake Hood at 12 cents a square foot in May and a cargo warehouse lease at 18 cents in July, Alaska News reported.

How long the Kodiak lease lasts depends on what the winning bidder builds. A $37,500 investment in permanent improvements earns 10 years, with a year added for every additional $7,500, up to Jan. 1, 2060. That's when the state's own lease of the airport land from the federal government, signed in 1971, expires.

The winner takes the lot as is and pays for site work, including utilities. It must survey the lot within a year and get an airport building permit and federal environmental and historic preservation reviews before building. Living quarters and outdoor junk storage are prohibited.

Bids will be opened and read publicly at the department's Anchorage leasing office at 2 pm Nov. 17.