Business View Magazine November-December 2018

90 91 EXPERIENCE YOU EXPECT EXPERTISE YOU DEMAND Considering Buying or Selling an Aircraft? Murfreesboro Aviation specializes in the sale and acquisition of Piston Twin, Turbo Prop and Jet aircraft. Contact us today to speak with a sales professional. MurfreesboroAviation.com  615-494-1900 Quality Maintenance & Avionics Services THE MURFREESBORO MUNICIPAL AIRPORT rate traffic that was not previously able to oper- ate at Murfreesboro.With those improvements in place, the Airport has its first land lease agree- ment in the last decade or so with a corporate customer. They’re building a hangar, right now, to facilitate their corporate jet and provide facilities for Air Methods and Vanderbilt Life Flight. This facility will be a tremendous economic asset to our airport and community. “Another improvement that is in the planning stages is a new terminal building,” Gehrke con- tinues. “The building that we’re currently in is about 4,000 square feet, and was built during the construction of the airport in 1952. It’s a unique building but it no longer reflects our community and its dynamics.We cannot provide the services and space our pilots and their passengers are accustomed to and require. So, the new building will be in the 10 to 12 thousand-square-foot range, and we should begin construction next spring or summer.” Also on the to-do list is improving the area around the new terminal, and making more room available for some of the Airport’s long-time ten- ants. “There is an older, Quonset-hut type hangar that has surpassed its useful life many years ago. We want to remove it and open up some much needed ramp space and build a new, larger, four- bay hangar with office space. That will allow for much more efficient operations and give this whole terminal area a fresh, new, appealing look, better representing our community to whomever passes through,” Gehrke says. “We also want to increase the number of available hangar facilities for some of our businesses on the field. Besides the university having a large presence here, there are other businesses that have done very well over the last five or ten years. Murfreesboro Avi- ation is our one of our FBOs that provides flight training, maintenance, and charter service and they’re growing tremendously. Mike Jones Aircraft Sales is known internationally for its work on the Piper Navajo Aircraft and their avionics work. They’re selling aircraft to customers in Europe, South America, and across the United States, and they need to expand. Both of those businesses provide several high-tech jobs and the Airport needs to continue to create space and opportuni- ties for the expansion of their businesses.” Serving its current tenants and customers is im- portant to Gehrke. “We are a Shell Aviation brand- ed dealer,” he says, “and we recently updated our contract with Eastern Aviation Fuels, which pro- vided us with aircraft refueling trucks, allowing us to offer aircraft fueling services to our custom- ers at their hangars. Before, our fueling services were all provided through fuel islands. The fuel