Originally published in 2011
By John F. Infanger
Airport Business
AUSTIN, TX – In the April 2008 edition of Airport Business, we featured Ron Henriksen, a self-made millionaire and corporate pilot who decided to invest his millions into his professional and personal love – aviation. At that time, he was just finishing up his creation of the Houston Executive Airport in Brookshire, on the far western outreach of the nation’s fourth largest city.
His success there led general aviation interests in the state capital, Austin, to seek him out for relief to their plight – a lack of adequate facilities since the opening of Austin-Bergstrom International, which led to displacement of hundreds of GA aircraft with the closure of the previous commercial airport, Mueller. Henriksen’s now on airport number two – a different airport, a different challenge.
At that time, he had purchased the remnants of a once-vibrant small general aviation airport, known as Bird’s Nest Airport, located some 15 miles northeast of downtown Austin.
Since acquiring Bird’s Nest, Henriksen has acquired adjacent properties, realigned and expanded the runway, and is now in the process of building a first-class business aviation hangar/terminal complex along with associated T-hangars and sunshade facilities.
What Henriksen is doing is creating a business aviation airport with a 6,045-foot concrete runway just northeast of the city center. The airport rests on some 575 acres, with farmland/ranches on the adjacent property. A new tollway that circumvents the city – state highway 130 – abuts the airport, and the city is creating a tollway exit directly to the airport, to accommodate anticipated economic development.
Comments Henriksen, ‘We hope to have 100 airplanes based here.”
His investment stands at some $33 million. “It’s a lot to get back in fuel, isn’t ·it?” he says. In Houston, Henriksen invested some $31 million. Over time, he projects that the Austin airport could prove to be the better economic generator.
When opened, Austin Executive will have a corporate hangar/terminal complex, three rows of T-hangars, 13 shadeports and some 15 acres available for development. The fuel farm will offer 20,000 gallons of jet-A; 20,000 gallons of 100LL; and a split tank for autogas and kerosene for tractors. Says Henriksen, ‘We built a concrete pad and bought the tanks; they’re Garsite tanks with a stainless steel liner in them. It’s a real advantage because with the other tanks you have to go in there every 15 years or so and refurbish.”
Creating his Austin airport has actually been a bigger financial challenge, says Henriksen, though the economic times have had an influence.
Relates Henriksen, “This land probably cost twice what it did in Houston. We’ve got 1,900 acres in Houston; we have 575 here. We started in Houston with an up economy, and halfway through the project we weren’t even sure if the contractors wanted the job because they were so busy. In the last half of construction, you could get anybody you want.
“Here we had a lot of people who wanted to build; we only took bids from three top-shelf firms. It was good for us because we’ re getting it built fairly inexpensively; it’s great for the contractor because they’ve got something to do.”
Regarding his future in the building of airports, Henriksen says, “This is the last airport I’m building. I’m pretty sure.” But he admits he still has some money in the kitty for perhaps one more.