YARMOUTH - A large hangar on Yarmouth airport property has been temporarily repurposed as a sound studio for a film company.
Leasing unused areas of the Yarmouth airport is one of the recent goals included in the new vision for the facility.
Interim airport manager Alain Muise was surprised and pleased to learn the identity of one of the first tenants.
“When we were having conversations on potential tenants we never dreamed of renting the entire hangar space to a production company, but we’re certainly thankful for it,” he said.
Because of the airport’s change in certification, from 302 to 301 last year, security requirements in the terminal building disappeared, which opened up space for office rental.
Muise says the airport has always eyed the large hangar as a potential spot for economic development.
“For instance, it would be a great incubator space for aerospace development,” he said.
Renting the large space to one tenant resulted in a learning curve for staff.
One realization was that there isn’t a lot of commercial storage that can be accessed conveniently. The use of the large hangar for the purpose of the production meant tenants had to be juggled from other hangars, generating a bit of a domino effect. “All the tenants have been extremely reasonable, with almost all of them saying ‘if it's good for Yarmouth county, it’s good for the airport,’” said Muise.
Airport executives signed two leases with the production company.
The large hangar is being leased for three months at $4,500/month.
Second-floor offices in the terminal building are also being rented for at least one month, for $1,000/month.
The Leif Ericson trail on the Cape Forchu Lighthouse property is another site being used by the film company for the production of the feature film The Lighthouse. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson will star in the movie, which features a Nova Scotia lighthouse keeper in the early 20th century
There is about 15,000 square feet of office, training and operational space available on airport property.
There’s also approximately 20,000 square feet of hangar space (three hangars in total).
The airport is a 750-acre facility, with about 120 acres of that being appropriate for aviation and air space industry.
Background
Certification change: A July audit carried out by Transport Canada found major deficiencies on main runway 06-24, meaning the runway does not meet the requirements of 302 certification.
Changing the airport certification from 302 to 301 means the airport can operate as it does now with one major exception – it can’t have scheduled passenger air service.
Air Nova flights into Yarmouth ceased in January 2003. Since then, several small operators have provided air service between Halifax and Yarmouth at various times. These included Sou'West Air, which covered the route in 2003, and Starlink Airlines, which flew between Halifax, Yarmouth and Portland, Maine, in 2009.
The latter lasted less than one year, despite a $2-million provincial government subsidy meant to carry the airline through the first few years of startup. From March 15, 2010 to December 31, 2012, an American company, Twin Cities Air Service, provided service between Yarmouth and Portland with scheduled flights several times a week.
