Sherwin-Williams Plans Corporate Jet Hangar at Cleveland Hopkins Airport

Michelle Jarboe, Crain's

The Sherwin-Williams Co. plans to build a company-owned airplane hangar at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, where the coatings giant currently leases space for its jets.

Legislation introduced at Cleveland City Council on Monday, Oct. 17, details a proposed ground-lease deal at the city-owned airport. The property is 5.8 acres along West Hangar Road, at the northwestern end of the airport near a UPS air facility, a parcel map shows.

The lease with the city would run for at least 30 years. Sherwin-Williams would pay fair-market rent for the land, based on an appraisal, plus fees for pumping fuel and using aircraft lubricants.

"This project is part of the company's overall growth strategy and long-term commitment to the region," spokeswoman Julie Young wrote in an emailed statement. "Sherwin-Williams is proud to invest in its future and the future of the region, which has been the company's home since 1866."

The publicly traded company wouldn't disclose the cost of the hangar. But Young noted that the project will not involve a request for public funding.

Based in downtown Cleveland, Sherwin-Williams is erecting a 1 million-square-foot headquarters just off Public Square and building a research and development center in Brecksville. Both complexes, which drew incentives from the city, Cuyahoga County and the state, are scheduled to open by late 2024.

Construction of the roughly 50,000-square-foot hangar facility is likely to start during the first half of 2023 and will take approximately 12 months, Young wrote. The project will create "substantial" construction jobs, she added, including opportunities for minority-owned and woman-owned firms and local small businesses.

Today, the Fortune 500 company houses and maintains its planes at another privately operated hangar at Hopkins. Regulatory filings and Federal Aviation Administration records show that Sherwin-Williams owns three corporate jets — a pair of Dassault Falcon 2000EX aircraft and one Dassault Falcon 2000LXS — through a subsidiary called Contract Transportation Systems Co.

City Councilman Kerry McCormack, chairman of the body's transportation committee, views the hangar project as a sign of faith in the city — and the airport, which is the subject of a $2 billion makeover plan. That overhaul is a few years away, though the city is moving toward demolition of old buildings and other site preparations.

"We're really starting to see the level of confidence in moving the airport into the future grow," said McCormack, citing the recent announcement of nonstop flights to and from Dublin, Ireland, and the Cleveland Clinic's plan to open a patient hospitality lounge in Concourse B.

"We're not going to shy away from the fact that it needs love," McCormack said of Hopkins. "But … you're starting to see a brighter future for the airport."