High Flying Hangars Aims to Expand Airport Communities with New Developments

High Flying Hangars Aims to Expand Airport Communities with New Developments

By Rob Finfrock

A seemingly endless wait for hangar space led a father/son team to bring the first new commercial development in more than 25 years to Double Eagle II Airport (AEG) in Albuquerque, NM. With the first phase recently completed, High Flying Hangars is focused on building out the remainder of the 46 planned box hangars at AEG while also eyeing similar projects around the country.

“We’ve cracked the code on how to bring these needed developments to federally-funded airports,” said Jack Hinkes, co-owner of the business with his father, Kenny. “There’s not another development group nationally that knows the inner workings of this and how to really get this done.”

HFH broke ground on the first row of hangars last year, with tenants moving in late September 2024. “We were sold out well before shovels hit the dirt,” Hinkes said. “The waiting list was unbelievable.”

While the first phase is comprised of ten 60′ x 50′ box hangars, HFH has settled on three sizes going forward. The project’s second phase includes ten 40′ x 30′ and four 50′ x 40′ hangars, with plans in future phases for 60′ x 60′ hangars large enough to accommodate a King Air 90, TBM 960, or Citation CJ3.

All feature sensor-controlled LED lighting, full electrical hookups, floor drains and electrically-powered bifold Diamond Doors with polycarbonate upper sections to allow in natural light. Larger hangars also include a small, ADA-approved three-quarter bathroom with a shower.

While the standard package also includes a polyurethane-coated floor, Hinkes selected Ashford’s concrete emulsifier for the top coat in his own hangar. “It’s an amazing product,” he said. “It changes the molecular structure of the concrete to make it harder and denser, and it’s fuel- and oil-proof.”

The AEG buildout will also include what Hinkes called “an innovative clubhouse,” with amenities such as a commercial-grade kitchen, wash pad, and an elevated observation deck facing AEG’s two runways.

“I grew up flying with my dad from a residential airpark,” he explained. “The people there would have their hangar doors open on the weekends, helping each other fix this and that or telling old stories.

“I see flying as an activity that you do for a couple of hours on a weekend, and then you sit and hangar fly the rest of the day,” Hinkes continued. “I want to bring that community experience that I had as a kid at a residential airpark to federal airports.”

“She Laughed at Me”

High Flying Hangars’ origin story began in late 2019 when Hinkes and a friend sought flying lessons from Kenny, a CFII and longtime professional pilot who once flew for a U.S. Senator from the Land of Enchantment. After finding a plane to train in and flying it home, Jack called the local FBO at AEG about storing his red Cessna 172.

“I asked the woman who answered, ‘Hey, can I get one of those T-hangars?'” he recalled. “And she laughed at me.” As with many general aviation (GA) airports, AEG’s existing 158 T-hangars were fully occupied with a years-long waiting list for new tenants.

Moreover, “if you ever manage to actually find someone willing to sell their hangar, it amounts to handing them a check and shaking their hand in a gentleman’s agreement,” Hinkes said. “You have no title to the land or the building. When you want to resell it, no one can finance this hangar on the purchase side. And there’s nothing stopping the city from deciding to take it from you.”

Hinkes wound up keeping his Skyhawk in a community hangar at the Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) but longed for space where he could perform maintenance and wash his plane. In May 2020, Jack and his father – who are also local real estate developers – launched a bid to bring new hangar space to AEG.

The “code” they managed to crack involved a mix of stubbornness, fortuitous connections and bringing city leaders around to the benefits of building strong GA pilot community at the reliever airport on Albuquerque’s West Side.

Aiding in the effort was Hinkes’ brother, Kendrick, who’d previously served as the aviation attorney for the City of Albuquerque before entering private practice. “I didn’t understand why this would be difficult,” Hinkes admitted. “I thought, ‘it’s just steel buildings. We’ve built condominiums, apartment complexes and office buildings.”

With Kendrick guiding him, Hinkes learned that building on federal airport land required “layers and layers and layers of things,” ranging from treasury and bonding requirements to offering hangar tenants means to line up financing and insurance. “These are the things that keep private developers from building on leased property,” he added.

The Hinkes approached the City of Albuquerque with a plan. Bringing together a national title company, a national bank and city officials, they worked out agreements allowing issuance of title policies on the new hangars, with the bank offering 15–20-year commercial loans bound by the 40-year lease on the property itself.

With those stipulations in place, “I can sell you an improvement on leased land that you actually have title to,” Hinkes added. “You can get title insurance, and you can finance it at any commercial or community bank or credit union.”

Future Growth

Thanks to the healthy response from tenants at AEG, Hinkes now looks to expand the business model to other airports across the Southwestern United States and beyond. Negotiations are underway at GA airports in Arizona and Colorado, and even along the East Coast.

“I want to put hangars at 50 airports,” he said. “There is such a huge need out there. Look at what happened in Las Vegas (NV) with the F1 races; tenants were pushed out of the city’s airports to make room for high-dollar visiting traffic.”

Hinkes further noted that several buyers at AEG purchased larger hangars for additional space for maintenance and to work on other projects. In some cases, these new tenants have yet to purchase an aircraft at all, but wanted the space to be there when they do – and to accommodate future upgrades.

“A lot of people are like me,” he said. “They may be flying a Mooney but plan to buy a [Piper] Meridian down the line. I’m a 200-hour private pilot working on my instrument rating, but I dream of buying a Bonanza someday while also holding onto the Skyhawk so I can teach my kids to fly in the same plane that I learned in.

“These hangars are about a lot more than putting a roof over your pride and joy,” Hinkes concluded. “The utility of the space goes so far beyond being ‘just’ an airplane garage. It really is about building a community.”

To learn more, visit kaeghangars.com.