MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Middletown City Council approved a settlement Tuesday with a skydiving company where Mayor Nicole Condrey once worked, ending two years of litigation with a deal that provides a 40-year lease and a $1.4 million hangar expansion to Start Skydiving LLC.
There was no public discussion of the deal’s financial terms. Four members of council met for 25 minutes in executive session before authorizing the settlement as an emergency resolution. Mayor Condrey abstained from the vote and did not attend the executive session.
“It sucks. I hate even having to do this,” Councilman Rodney Muterspaw said before the vote. “But you have to weigh the evidence vs the risk. What is the risk to the taxpayers if we don’t settle this thing? Is it worth going to trial for?”
Vice Mayor Monica Zenni said the settlement will lead to “a more harmonious future” at the airport, while contributing to its growth and development as a destination.
“I do believe that the city’s commitment to expand the available tenant space for aviation-related activities at the airport will be a good investment for our citizens as well as all current and future users of the airport,” she said.
Councilman Zack Ferrell added: “It’s good to see us moving forward. I think that’s been the theme for my first year of council … We’re moving forward, forgetting the past and what’s happened, just trying to make the best of the situation we’re in and grow from there.”
Tuesday’s vote was the city’s third attempt to finalize the settlement, which the WCPO 9 I-Team analyzed in October when critics raised concerns about the deal.
“Eventually, this is going to be a skydiving-only airport,” Middletown resident Dennis Meade told the I-Team last month. “They keep coming up with new ways to hamper the airport’s operations.”
The final version of the lease includes a lower rent figure than the first deal brought to council. Start Skydiving will pay $795 per month for the space it already occupies at the airport, instead of $1,395. After the city completes a hangar expansion that costs taxpayers no more than $1.4 million, monthly rent will increase to $4,500 plus 2% per year. Start Skydiving also gains the ability to operate its own fuel farm and have a right of first refusal if the city decides to sell airport land.
In a response to written questions, City Manager Paul Lolli said the rent adjustment took place because Start Skydiving decided to "return space they had been occupying to the city ... Start had been paying additional money for the FBO space, which was not covered in their lease."
Lolli, Mayor Condrey and Start Skydiving owner John Hart have declined to be interviewed about the settlement.
But Lolli did answer some of the questions the I-Team sent him via email last month, including how the settlement will benefit residents and taxpayers.
"The settlement provides finality to an outstanding disagreements amongst the parties that allow all involved to move forward cooperatively benefiting the current and future growth of the Middletown Regional airport," he wrote. "It allows for the dismissal for litigation and resets the cooperative relationship between the parties."
Start Skydiving's owners have filed three lawsuits since 2020, while the city sued to evict the company in 2021. In one case, the company alleged the city breached its 2009 lease for an airport hangar and violated the company’s constitutional rights by “engaging in corporate espionage through the hacking and stealing of Start’s business data.” The city denied the allegations in a 2021 court filing that said the Harts were upset about “losing the ability to run free” at the city-owned airport.
“The city defendants have engaged in no unlawful or vindictive behavior at all,” said the filing. “Instead, the city has simply begun regaining control of the airport to use it as an economic driver for the region.”
The settlement includes a city apology “for actions that prior representatives of the city may have taken to damage the relationship between Start Skydiving and the city.”
Here are Lolli's additional answers to the questions posed by the I-Team:
- Question: After the new hangar is constructed, monthly rent will be $4,500, which means it will take 25 years for the city to recover its $1.4 million investment. Is that an acceptable return? Answer: The hangar expansion provides for a long-term asset for the city.
- Question: CVG Airport says it has discussed “various arrangements” relating to future management of Middletown Regional Airport, adding: “Middletown is deciding what they want and how to move forward.” Is Middletown still considering a business arrangement with CVG? Answer: No comment.
- Question: Section 9 (D) of the proposed lease gives Start Skydiving “rights of first refusal over the sale, in whole or in parts, of the property constituting the Airport.” Would that make a deal with CVG less likely? Would it keep the city from attracting Aerospace tenants or an expansion by Butler Tech? Answer: The City has no intention of selling all or part of the airport.
- Question: Section 2 (12) allows Start Skydiving to be a “Self-Service Fueling” that “may purchase its own fuel from its own source or preference.” There is no provision that says it cannot sell that fuel to other airport users. Could the company compete against the airport’s FBO operation? What impact would that have on airport revenue? Answer: The question asked is founded in an inaccurate understanding of the agreement and related operational relations.
