Dayton Airpark projects take flight

Looking past the current storms in the housing market, the Dayton Airpark, a Wade Lakemont development, is moving onto the runway.

"Nothing happens quickly. We want to get ahead of the market," says Doug Thorngren, whose Reno-based Silverado Properties is providing consulting and marketing services on the project. Centerpiece of the development at the south edge of the Lyon County community is a privately owned 5,400-foot airstrip. Rebuilt within the past two years, the runway can handle planes as large as medium-sized jets.

Thorngren says his company is beginning to market hangar condominiums at the airpark, targeting pilots and other owners of aircraft in California. Advertising in pilot-oriented publications and at aviation shows will emphasize Nevada's tax advantages for aircraft owners. Demand for hangar spaces in northern Nevada is high, Thorngren says, with waiting lists of two years common at airports in the region.

The 54 hangar spaces, each of them 65 feet by 50 feet, will be located on the south side of the airpark. The metal buildings will include attached space that can be developed into an office bungalow.

At the same time that work is under way on the hangar project, Silverado Properties will be marketing homes at Dayton Airpark. The homes, each with a private hangar, are linked directly to the airpark's runway through a network of taxiways.

The approximately 45 production and 40 custom homes in the project will range from 2,200 to 3,600 square feet. The 12-home first phase of the residential subdivision is about half sold.

Some homebuyers, Thorngren says, are likely to be businesspeople who commute by private aircraft to jobs in the Bay Area and California's Central Valley.

A significant number of the buyers will pay cash for new homes, avoiding the hassles of the mortgage credit crunch, he says.

Next up at the project: Hopes by Thorngren to attract a restaurant as well a fuel supplier to the airport.