Airport plans lead to lawsuit

Spokane Airport officials are trying to oust an aviation services company from six buildings the firm leases on the airport’s southwest corner.

The land must be cleared to allow improved line-of-sight for the new air traffic control tower at the airport, which is due to come on line in August.

A lawsuit filed last week asks a state court to condemn the facilities used by Spokane Airways so the airport can tear them down over the next several months. The privately owned firm has leased the six buildings for nearly 20 years.

Spokane Airways vice president John Chastek said he and his father, company founder Richard Chastek, have tried for nearly five years to sign a lease with the airport for new facilities there.

“At some point, things changed and it went from them offering to pay for relocating us to offering nothing at all,” said Chastek.

The company has about 100 employees and provides aircraft storage, deicing, fueling and maintenance.

Two weeks ago, the Chasteks filed a $10 million claim against the airport. Timothy Lawlor, a Spokane attorney representing Spokane Airways, said that’s what it would cost to replace the six existing buildings if the company had to build them itself. The airport board has 60 days to reply to that claim.

The airport’s attorney, Robert Dunn, said Spokane Airways’ lease makes clear the buildings can be condemned whenever the property creates a safety hazard or when the airport board finds a more beneficial use for the land.

Spokane airport spokesman Todd Woodard said officials there aren’t free to comment on the dispute because the airport board and Spokane Airways “signed a written agreement” that allows only attorneys to talk about it. Both sides agree the key issue is if the airport is required to build a new facility for the Chasteks and how much the company would be charged to lease it.

Dunn said the airport is obligated to help relocate the business but must also charge reasonable lease rates.

The problem is the insistence by the Chasteks that new lease terms be negotiated “unrelated to construction costs,” he said.

“All along my client (the airport) has wanted to reach an agreement. We’ve tried to do that but they (Spokane Airways) just wouldn’t let it happen,” said Dunn.

“This is just a landlord-tenant dispute,” he added. “The tenant has essentially strung out this negotiation to the very end, in order to leverage their argument.”

Lawlor said the lease states the airport is obliged to pay for relocation to a new facility. “But they have to charge fair-market rates for the facility,” he said.

Lawlor said the dispute threatens the existence of Spokane Airways.

In past years, the two sides agreed that the airport would build new facilities for Spokane Airways, which would be leased to the company at its current lease rates, said Chastek. But when those leases expired, the airport would negotiate new rates based on construction costs.

John Chastek said the latest proposal from the airport, for a single building to replace the six the company now uses, would cost three times in rent what Spokane Airways now pays. “We cannot afford that much for space that’s about 35,000 square feet less than we currently have,” Chastek said.

Lawlor also said the airport has twice supported applications to a state agency for grants to build new airport facilities for other companies. One project resulted in a new building for XN Air, which Lawlor said is a competitor to Spokane Airways. He said the airport made the claim in the grant application that XN couldn’t afford to build the facility itself.

Since XN Air opened its doors this year, “XN has already raided Spokane Airways, hiring away many of their people,” said Lawlor.

Dunn said the two parties have stopped communicating. He noted the airport asked for a new offer from the Chasteks but hasn’t yet received one.

Lawlor said one option Spokane Airways is considering is bidding on a parcel of land the airport owns at the west end of Pilot Drive. If the Chasteks submit the winning bid at the end of the month, the option is for Spokane Airways to develop a new facility on land leased from the airport.

Ironically, that site is where the airport until recently proposed the Chasteks relocate their business, said Lawlor.