Detroit Metro Airport Expansion

by Daniel Duggan, Crain's Detroit Business

When Jonathan Brateman got the listing for a 4.5 acre piece of property east of Detroit Metropolitan Airport one year ago, his clients were ready to sell a piece of family land to a commercial developer.

Early negotiations involved developers interested in a self storage facility, hotel or retail center.

A landing strip wasn't discussed.

In a master plan for the airport now being publicly debated, a new runway would be build just south of Brateman's clients, putting their land between that and an existing runway.

But land for the runway wouldn't be purchased until an expansion is warranted, with 2015 as the earliest date for land acquisition.

The land Brateman represents is on Middlebelt Road, south of Goddard Road. Based on its location, he is unsure whether the airport would even need the land.

"So are we going to be in between two runways or not?" said Brateman, president of Novi based Jonathan Brateman Properties. "Our marketing of this property has been thrown into a sort of limbo situation."

Brateman's clients aren't alone.

The city of Romulus estimates there are 30 improved industrial proprties, 18 improved commercial properties and 3,500 residents that would be displaced.

The Wayne County Airport Authority has not verified that those figues are correct, said Michael Conway, director of public affairs.

The situation adds one more problem to an area where land sales and development already have been slowed by a weak economy, said Tom Wright, an associte broker with Southfield based GVA Detroit, who has been specializing in land near the airport for 20 years.

He represents two clients selling five parcels of land in the potential expansion area.

Uncertainty about the land is a problem for two reasons: some companies want to be close to the airport, and others want to be far away.

"There are companies who do business with the airport and want to be as close as possible," he said.

Other companies are evaluating whether it is worth the investment of time and energy to develop property that may be relocated in 10 years, he said.

"This airport needs to keep expanding and growing," Wright said. "You just want to know far enough ahead of time where they're growing so you can buy land somewhere else."

Future planning is exactly the point, said Conway. Projections put passenger volume at 58 million to 60 million passengers by 2025, up from 36 million currently.

"We are a thriving international hub airport that is generating a lot of jobs in a market that is currently struggling for jobs," he said. "For the sake of the region, we can't be suffocated for future growth, and we need to have a plan."

By 2015, the need for a new runway will be determined and the environmental planning and land acquisition will start. The runway likely would not be in place until 2027.

Romulus Mayor Alan Lambert said the airport should publicize plans for the runway only when expansion is imminent.

"In 10 years, if that's what we need to bring new jobs and revenue, then we have no choice but to go along with it," he said. "But it's way too devastating to the people of this community to have this in the master plan right now."

The airport authority has postponed its vote on the master plan until its May meeting.

Meanwhile, Romulus is one of nine communities in which elected officials have come out against the master plan. The group, Lambert said, has hired an attorney to help challenge the plan.

But challenges and potential lawsuits only worsen the current problems, said Brateman.

"My clients would like to get on with their lives," he said. "If the airport is going to take the land, let them do it swiftly. If it won't happen, then they should come to a resolution."