Servos’s arrival at the OAR could be chalked up to destiny or simply good timing. When the housing boom hit in 2006, prices in Calgary soared higher and faster than those in Okotoks and he and his wife Stacey jumped at the opportunity to sell their house in the southeast Calgary community of McKenzie Towne and land at the Air Ranch. It was a smart decision – the value of their property has since increased by more than $200,000.
Their house, all 2,700 square feet of it, sits on a 75-by-150-foot, pie-shaped lot nestled in a quiet cul-de-sac. The front faces east, overlooking green space and the runway. The backyard borders the wildlife sanctuary and has a clear view of the foothills and the mountains.
Servos would fall into the category of the aviation enthusiast OAR developers have been pursuing since loosening the business model that produced the runway mansions of Phase 1. He doesn’t own his own plane (a used single-engine plane can start at $25,000). Instead, Servos rents a plane from nearby Sky Wings flight school for an hour or two every month to get his fix. Owning a plane would be ideal, but a more realistic approach, he says, is fractional ownership, where a handful of fliers each chip in for a plane – a timeshare with wings.
“We’re definitely setting some major roots here,” says Servos, who works as a duty manager for the Calgary Airport Authority. “I have no desire to move and I don’t think I could find anything better.”
The fact that there aren’t too many families with a love of flying like the Servos’s, combined with the slow-to-recover housing market, is undoubtedly one reason for what Bryce Medd, OAR executive vice-president and airport manager, admits are slow sales.
“There’s no indication that it’s our pricing that’s an issue. For us, we really think that people don’t know what’s here,” says Medd, regardless of the development’s 10-year history.
“But that is part of being at the pointed part of the arrow in terms of doing something new and different.”
The OAR isn’t the only one trying something new and different. Sensing an opportunity to capitalize on such a niche market, two other Alberta towns are establishing airparks.
In June, Fred Primrose, part owner of JSP Developments, sold the last of 11 lots in the first of phase of a 100-acre airpark three miles east of the town of Westlock. Its proximity to Edmonton and capacity to act as a launch pad for workers commuting to northern Alberta made it an ideal location, says Primrose. The two-acre lots, which sit next to a 3,000-foot runway, sold for an average $80,000. Another three phases and an 18-unit condominium are in the works, though the economy may need to recover before that occurs, concedes Primrose.
The Town of Lacombe, strategically situated along the corridor between Calgary and Edmonton, hopes to break ground with a 23-lot residential airpark early next year. The Lacombe Air Park will be built adjacent to the town’s existing airport.
However, the town requires that 75% of the lots be spoken for before it moves forward with the project, meaning buyers must each put down a 10% deposit by the end of the year. So far, 19 prospective buyers have expressed interest. Even if the 75% threshold can’t be met, the town has no intention of abandoning the idea.
“From an economic development perspective, it brings a new group of individuals to our community who are aviation enthusiasts,” says Kenneth Kendall, Lacombe’s chief administrative officer. “It will ultimately increase traffic at our airport, which is also very important, and there’s always potential for spinoff businesses from this.”
And to the relief of Don Warner, president of the Lacombe Flying Club, it will secure the current airstrip in perpetuity. Despite any obstacles that might hinder the flight path of the upcoming project, he maintains the kind of optimism that led to Winters’ OAR.
“There’s enough fliers and people with enough money in central Alberta to make something like this go,” says Warner.
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