Vaerus Aviation will build a new hangar at Topeka Regional Airport, adding more jobs
A local aviation company is making a big investment in hangars at Topeka Regional Airport, potentially doubling its workforce.
Vaerus Aviation and the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority board of directors signed the deal Tuesday following an executive session and public vote on the contract.
"Vaerus is an important part of our tenant community and we are eager to see them grow," said MTAA chair Brian Armstrong. "This is also an inflection point. It is the sort of project that will cause other aeronautical firms to take notice of Topeka."
The company is investing in its current hangar while also building a new hangar.
"We're excited about the future here at Topeka Regional Airport in general with the MTAA and the vision that you guys have for the future," said Patrick Traul, vice president and director of operations. "Thank you for partnering with us and helping us expand our business and expand our footprint here and helping make this a long term home for us."
Vaerus Aviation hangar expansion means more jobs
Vaerus Aviation is an aircraft management company, which Traul described as "like commercial real estate management for airplanes."
"We help make aviation safe and simple for owners of aircraft," Traul said. "They own the aircraft, and we assist them in their operational needs with those aircraft. Everything from a safety management system to providing maintenance and flight crews and everything that goes along with operating their corporate flight departments."
Traul said that Vaerus' business in Topeka has been growing, and the company is at the point where more space is needed. The deal with the MTAA will add about 30,000 square feet of hangar space adjacent to its current hangar No. 626 at the airport. There is a decades-old hangar, No. 625, that Vaerus will demolish and replace with a new one.
"We are gaining a whole lot of room to continue to serve our customers better," Traul said. "That's what's grown our business over the long term is doing a good job of serving our customers."
More hangar space means more aircraft and more services for clients — especially in the maintenance department, which has seen what Traul described as exponential growth.
"The ramifications of that economic development of more high paying jobs for the community in the realm of maintenance, aircraft detailing, pilots, our accounting staff, etcetera," Traul said. "So it's going to add more space for our business to expand, and we plan on expanding with the management business. We also have an aircraft sales and acquisitions business, and then an aircraft maintenance business as well."
He said the company has about 60 employees now. The hangar expansion will allow them to almost double their Topeka operations.
"So if you look at doubling the size of our business, you can do the math," Traul said on new job estimates.
Why Topeka Regional Airport?
Here's why Traul said Vaerus chose to expand in Topeka:
"Topeka's our home. We're born and raised here, and this is where we started business. So we have an extra vested interest in the success of not only our community, but the airport in general."
"The fact that Topeka is growing and there's lots of opportunity here. There's lots of momentum happening in the business community and in downtown, and we think that there's good opportunity for our business to grow along with that."
"We also serve part of the Kansas City market from Topeka. Airport real estate is a little easier to come by in Topeka than it is in Kansas City. We're able to serve that market from our Topeka base and bring dollars into the Topeka community, which I think is a huge benefit."
"With the MTAA right now, there's vision right now for growth. They're giving lots of opportunity for growth, so things that we haven't seen in a long time from this airport board and our economic development director and the airport president. They're trying to build some momentum and think outside of the box in ways that they can help not only the airport grow, but also the industrial park."
Taxpayers won't be paying for it
"The beauty of this deal is that it costs the MTAA and the taxpayer is nothing," Traul said. "We simply looked for a long-term land lease that allows us to invest our own dollars in building the infrastructure.
"It allows us to invest our own dollars, recoup that investment over the long term and take care of, maintain and and have our own facility without the MTAA or the taxpayers having to give out funds to a business to incentivize them to come. We're funding our own expansion. It's just a matter of the MTAA being willing to set up the lease in a way that incentivize that."
Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Vaerus Aviation will build new hangar at Topeka Regional Airport
