After eight years of haggling, Frederick city finally found a receptive ear to requests to take ownership of a county-owned hangar at the Frederick Municipal Airport.

The city will pay $330,000 for the 15,000-square-foot hangar that was once used for Frederick Community College’s now defunct aviation maintenance program. The most recent appraisal is $1.2 million, said Josh Russin, executive assistant to Mayor Randy McClement (R).

The city has two potential tenants who will pay between $5 and $7 a square foot for a portion of the hangar, giving the city roughly $120,000 annually, Russin said. He would not specify who the tenants are.

According to Kevin Daugherty, the airport manager, the Frederick Municipal Airport has four major hangars, including the one the city wants to buy back, and 125 smaller hangars for individual single-engine planes.

Buying the hangar back requires an amendment to the city budget, and funding will come from the contingency fund, Russin said.

The county paid the city $300,000 for the hangar in 1981, and the deed stipulates that it is to be used for aviation purposes only. Frederick city has tried to buy the hangar back from Frederick County since FCC’s aviation program closed in 2003, but county officials balked because they said they needed it to store emergency equipment.

Frederick Board of County Commissioners’ President Blaine R. Young (R) said McClement asked for the hangar again in December, and Young told him to “make an offer.”

Previous county administrations, Young said, made an issue of selling it back because they said they needed the storage space. The equipment housed in the hangar can go to storage space the county owns on Shoal’s Lane. The county, Young said, has “plenty of storage space.”

Since 2003, the county has used the space to store fire and rescue equipment.

Former Frederick city Mayor Jennifer Dougherty (D) tried to buy back the hangar because she said the county was not doing anything with it. “We thought it could be a money maker, and they wouldn’t give it to us,” she said.

Former county Commissioner John “Lennie” Thompson Jr. (R) said the administrations of Dougherty (2001-2005) and Jeff Holtzinger (2005-2009) “did not really push it” because there were “honest differences of opinion” on whether storing fire and rescue equipment fit the terms of the deed because the airport might need it in the event of an emergency.

“[Thompson believes] being respectful in a conversation is interpreted as ‘not pushing it,’ but we were asking for it on more than one occasion. ... We tried to get it back for city or commercial use. We did want it back because it wasn’t being used for aviation purposes,” Dougherty said.

The difference between the appraised value and what the city is paying does not necessarily mean the county is on the losing end of the deal, Thompson said, because deed restrictions limit the hangar’s use and could turn away other potential buyers.

Young expects to hear criticism of the decision, but said he is “willing to take the political hit because it is the right thing to do to turn the space over to the airport.”

McClement hopes to resolve the sale at the Sept. 15 meeting of the mayor and Board of Aldermen, but it may have to be addressed in closed session because it is a real estate transaction, Russin said.

kheerbrandt@gazette.net