Airport Real Estate Firm Rooted in Texas-Sized Opportunity

The decision to forge the trail was inspired by his father’s involvement in aviation, he said.

“My dad [Jack] was an airport developer and had an FBO, so I had been around aviation growing up," Cox said.

And if it weren’t for the lumber business, the family would have never got into aviation.

“We were going back and forth to Magnolia, Arkansas, every week [to the lumber mill for Jack’s work], so my dad learned to fly,” Cox said. “And once we moved to Fort Worth in the early 1980s, he couldn’t find a hangar anywhere and decided to lease land to build hangars. He initially built 48 units and sold them all before they were finished. It went so well he got out of the lumber business and started building hangars full time until the year 2000.”

Shortly after, calls that would have formerly gone to his father started coming through to Cox’s phone. It was a sign, Cox said, that there was enough business in Texas to move into aviation real estate development full time. 

Airspace predominantly focuses on the brokering— the buying, selling, or leasing—of commercial hangar properties across the state, at both privately and publicly owned airports.

“There are more airports in Texas than any other state, except for Alaska,” Cox said. “Since there are so many, we do a lot of brokerage work, of course, but we do have a fairly large property management business as well where we manage close to 600 hangar units. This involves collecting rent, managing the leases, keeping the hangars full, and handling all of the insurance and maintenance requirements.”

To date, Airspace has been involved in more than $200 million hangar transactions, he said. The firm represents sellers of almost 20 listings across the state, from a box hangar with pilots' quarters at Hicks Airfield (T67) to a roughly 14,000-square-foot airport estate at Aero Country Airport (T31).

“We do a lot of consulting for new developments as well, where we are typically hired to help showcase what the demand for hangars are at that airport, discuss FBO facilities, or negotiate the ground lease with the city,” Cox said.

The latter effort is one that Cox, who formerly managed Fort Worth Spinks Airport (KFWS) and Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (KFTW), has become particularly skilled at. Above any other aspect of aviation real estate, negotiating ground leases is his favorite thing to do and an effort that is valuable for both buyers and sellers of hangars.

“Most of the municipal airports’ properties are on long-term ground leases with the cities, and that’s where my specialty lies.," Cox said.

Transactions with ground lease considerations are much different than those where a hangar is on fee simple land. And with a majority of his book of business occurring at public airports, Cox puts significant attention towards building relationships with airport managers. These relationships have been fostered over the course of his 25 years in the aviation industry. 

Cox said it’s tough for him to sit idle when not assisting others in disposing or procuring aviation real estate. He is often searching for airport properties that suit his own investment criteria, focusing predominantly on hangars with temporary living quarters that he can renovate and resell.