A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

Aviation real estate developer Blackbird Partners has announced a hangar development project at Missouri’s Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS).&nbsp;Unlike other hangar complexes sprouting up across the U.S., this one will include eight hangars to be sold, rather than leased (within the constraints of an airport 45-year ground lease).
To be known as “The Nest at SUS,” the nearly 13-acre facility located off Taxiway Delta will feature four concrete hangar structures (“wings”). Each will contain a 6,705-sq-ft private hangar capable of sheltering up to a super-midsize jet, and a 14,909-sq-ft single-owner hangar that can accommodate an ultra-long-range jet or multiple smaller aircraft.
All hangars will provide two floors of separate crew and owner/lifestyle space. Owners can select from several standard layouts and high-end furnishing plans or design their own custom configuration based on their intended use.
For customers with a larger fleet, they can choose to purchase an entire wing for a total of 31,549 sq ft of hangar and office space. All owners will belong to a “homeowner association” type plan administered by Blackbird, which will be responsible for all hangar exterior and systems maintenance. Owners will pay annual dues into a maintenance fund to support the complex’s upkeep.
Blackbird is in negotiations with the three service providers at KSUS to determine a preferred FBO to provide ground handling and fuel discounts, but owners will be free to patronize their favorite. The developer is now accepting presales inquiries on the complex, which is slated to break ground in early 2027 and open the following year.
For the company, this will be its second such facility, having completed a smaller prototype complex last year at Waukesha County Airport (KUES) in Wisconsin. According to Blackbird co-founder Carson Fox, it has incorporated all the lessons learned there into this new project. He described a measured growth plan to AIN consisting of two new airport locations a year with a goal of seven facilities by 2031, along with several under development. The developer will focus mainly on business aviation airports.
“Aircraft ownership has evolved. The infrastructure hasn’t,” said Fox. “We’re building what should’ve existed all along: aviation real estate designed to be owned.”

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