The Kenai City Council enacted an ordinance determining that real property described as city-owned airport land located outside the airport reserve is not needed for public purpose and, authorizing the sale of the property. The city received a request to purchase the city-owned leased land outside of the Airport Reserve with substantial constructed leasehold improvements.
“What this ordinance proposes to do is to sell this property to Aaron Swanson, who does business as Forever Business Plaza, LLC,” according to City Manager Paul Ostrander. “Under the same authorization of the same tools that we did under 2018-12, in this case, Mr. Swanson has agreed to purchase the property at fair market value as determined by a fee appraisal and on top of that, place 25% of the fair market value in an escrow account that he would use to invest in the building itself. There were, I think, four properties that were actually sold under 2018-12. This is, again, one of those ten, but that’s what this ordinance does is proposes to sell it under the same terms and conditions that were under 2018-12.”
In 1984, the FAA released the property for sale for other than airport purposes, allowing the property to be sold at fair market value. All revenues from the sale would be deposited in the Airport Land Sale Permanent Fund for use in the development, improvement, and operation of the Kenai Municipal Airport as required by the Deed of Release.
Swanson submitted a good-faith deposit, and the city ordered an appraisal to be performed on the property as-if vacant. The fair market value of the property of $135,000 was determined by an appraisal performed by MacSwain Associates in May 2021. Based on the amount, Swanson is committing to invest a minimum of $33,750 in the construction of new permanent improvements on the premises.
The physical address is 11568 Kenai Spur Highway.