Jet Ranch project carries Reno contractor through recession

Completion of the Jet Ranch private aircraft facility at the Carson City Airport didn't come without some tense moments for contractor Valley Construction Co. of Reno.

The 84,000-square-foot project consists of three buildings and 11 hangers and is the largest private project every built at the Carson City Airport, Valley Construction Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ralph Smith says. The first two buildings were completed about 18 months ago, but as the recession deepened during construction of the final building, developer KCXP Investments of Dayton, which funded the first two buildings, was forced to seek two rounds of commercial financing. Smith says securing funding was akin to "pulling teeth from a hungry alligator."

To complete the final building, a privately owned 44,000-square-foot hangar, Smith says Valley Construction shaved off $600,000 off initial project costs to make it possible for the owners of the hangar to move in.

"Basically we reevaluated interior finishes to allow the developer to open the doors and get a certification of occupancy," Smith says. "We had to take out some of the bells and whistles, but it allowed them to open the doors."

Valley Construction was a design-build contractor on the job and also helped facilitate the development from leasing the ground to getting entitlements, special-use permits and approvals from the Carson City Airport Authority and Carson City Board of Supervisors. The extra functions helped keep the construction downturn at bay for the Valley team.

"That doesn't happen very often, but being involved from entitlements to the end of course has made the project length somewhat longer, but it has been a good project," Smith says. "It really kept us afloat."

Construction of the final hangar wasn't without physical challenges as well. The building has a radius roof that looks similar to the end of a aircraft wing, and steel had to be hoisted 54 feet in the air.

"It was very hard to design. We had to get very creative," Smith says.

The Jet Ranch project offers 10 for sale or lease hangers ranging in size from 3,400 to 7,500 square feet.