The Second Act of Torchport Airpark

The airfield is being resurrected from a slow demise by a passionate pilot and aircraft owner, Timothy Baise, who purchased the several hundred-acre airport in 2020 with the intention of making it a destination fly-in community. 

“Torchport Airpark is in a beautiful location. If you don’t want to go to one of the main airports in Northern Michigan, Charlevoix, or Traverse City, it’s an ideal choice because it’s in the middle of those two airports,” Baise said. “I got my pilot’s license in 2009 and then started flying up to that area [from Detroit] and bought a lot in the area. But I had been trying to buy the airport for 10 or so years before we finally did on July 7, 2020.”

Baise has grand plans for what he wanted to turn the airport into. First, he needed to buy it from its former owners and original developers.

“The airport was a disaster when I purchased it,” Baise said. “Part of the problem was that the goal was for the land to be developed into an airpark, with some residential and commercial lots sold. There were a handful of hangars put up on the commercial lots, but they couldn’t get anybody to build inside of the development. And part of the reason why is that the bylaws were restrictive, until they were changed later on.”

Baise explained that a negative consequence of the loosened construction rules was that hangars need not be built alongside residences. This led to an influx of nonaviators purchasing lots, which ultimately stifled the aviation spirit that had formerly been present. 

“So now people started buying hangars and used them for storage units,” he said. “They ended up losing control over their own development and nothing got done. When I bought the airport, I immediately contacted everybody that bought lots in the residential portion and arranged to buy all of these lots, except for one home. When I bought these, I gained control of the airpark and the condo association and went on a mission to change the bylaws back to ‘aviation use only.'”

Baise, a mortgage and construction industry professional, had expected some of the pushback he received by purchasing the airport. But there were also some unexpected challenges to overcome. 

“I had to make a bunch of people there mad because they wanted to be in the community but didn’t want to fly,” he said. “They didn’t want me to do anything with aviation. We went through a couple of years of lawsuits and everybody trying to buff the change in the system. Last year, we ended up finally winning and everything just kind of went away.”

With all of the legalities squared away, the next step was to list lots for sale. This was the easy part and there was clearly pent-up demand for fly-in lots in this part of the country. 

“The development is set up for 46 total lots: 31 residential and 15 commercial,” Baise said. “Including the lot I own with the spec home [that was already on site], we sold the initial 15 residential lots already. We listed them and they all sold within four days. There are probably a dozen people on the waitlist for any future lots or any that may fall through.” 

A lot of maintenance work was also required to get the airport to the point it is at today. The runway—the key component of the community—required some long-needed attention put towards it. 

“The runway was in pretty rough shape when we bought the airport, and we wanted to pave it,” Baise said. “When we had it surveyed, it was 8 feet, 2 inches out of level. And I don’t mean from one end to the other. There was an 8-foot hump in the middle that would catapult you if you landed on it wrong. It was unsafe, and we expect to asphalt and stripe it in the spring.” 

Other recent improvements on the property include adding a split-rail fence all around the airport to discourage trespassers, cutting down trees, and cleaning ditch lines. 

“There’s a center, pie-shaped section of the airport between Runways 4/22, and 9/27 that’s about 15 acres,” he said. “We clear-cut that, pulled out all the roots, got everything leveled and grassed in, so now we have a great light sport aviation airport.” 

Visitors during the annual charity fly-in planned for Memorial Day weekend will be able to see all of the hard work. 

“There are all sorts of things you could do around here,” Baise said. “You could get to the lakes, there are some nice restaurants, and there are several golf courses within minutes. Right now, there is no way to get to these places. So, my goal over the next year or so is that we are going to start with a few cabins on the commercial section of the airport, which pilots can rent. We [will also] have vehicles available.”

Also on the horizon is the TART Trail, a paved urban recreation corridor connecting Traverse to Charlevoix, which is slated to be built near the airport. 

"We will have bikes available here, so that you can ride into town, which is less than 4 miles away,” he said. “We will become a true destination airport and not one that is out of reach for most pilots.”