Northern Colorado community college buys $19.5 million hangar to expand aviation school
Aims Community College is expanding its aviation program in Northern Colorado, adding a $19.5 million hangar and an on-site aviation mechanic program to its school. The additions are being made at the Loveland Fort Collins airport campus.
On Tuesday, Sen. John Hickenlooper attended a tour of the facilities, known as the Aims Community College Flight Training Center. There he learned more about the projected need for pilots over the next several decades, and how the college is working to get northern Coloradans involved in the industry.
"We've got a push to get more pilots trained and ready to make sure we don't have bottlenecks," Hickenlooper said. "I think this is a way for local communities to make sure in their catchment area they got enough pilots."
Aims relocated in 2018 to the Loveland Fort Collins airport. Prior, they were located at the Greeley Airport in Weld County.
Some residents reached out to CBS News Colorado expressing frustrations that the college was relocated to, and expanding in, a county in which Weld taxpayers do not live.
Weld County residents help fund the college through taxes. When contacted by CBS News Colorado, several Weld County commissioners said they send funds to the college by order of the taxpayers.
However, several said those funds cannot be diverted simply because the college is expanding its presence in Larimer County.
The college also openly shares that they cater their educational services to residents in both Weld and Larimer counties.
Chuck Jensen, vice president of administrative services for the college, said the relocation to Larimer County was determined by the board of trustees. He said there was value found in having a school at a commercial airport with greater access to commercial companies and resources like a control tower.
He said that is also part of the reason why the college further invested in a new hangar at the same airport.
"It made a lot of sense to keep our ecosystem right by each other," Jensen said. "That facility afforded us a lot of space to grow."
The newly purchased $19.5 million hangar was described by some as the "Taj Mahal of hangars" in Northern Colorado. The large hangar has amenities including gathering spaces, observation decks, fireplaces, kitchens, office spaces, and more.
The college plans to redesign some of the hangar, which has housed aircraft for major companies in the region, to be classroom space.
They also plan to add a mechanic school that will allow students to complete hands-on learning with aircraft which the college owns and flies for pilot training.
"We currently have our planes serviced outside of the college. Now, with the space in that hangar, we are able to have our own in-house maintenance," Jensen said.
Student Shaylina Carter said having mechanics on the property will allow student pilots to spend more time studying aviation in the sky.
"One of the things that slows down your progress is if there are enough planes to fly. Having our own in-house maintenance means hopefully, those planes will remain flying," Carter said.
Carter said she was ecstatic to have the additional resources and educational space coming to a college that is easily accessible to Northern Colorado residents.
"It's incredible," Carter said. "It is really nice only having a 20-minute drive, it is like driving into work."