RST Airport Commission Meeting Summary - December 2, 2025
Airport Commission Meeting - December 2, 2025
The Airport Commission convened at 2:00 PM on December 2, 2025, to review operational and financial reports, approve routine maintenance projects, and vote on significant lease agreements. The meeting addressed a series of proposals ranging from facility upgrades to major capital development with United Therapeutics. No members of the public were present for the open comment period.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes Approval: The Commission unanimously approved the minutes from the October 7th meeting.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No public comments or testimony were received during the meeting as no members of the public were in attendance.
Discussion Items
- Operational and Financial Reports: Staff presented data showing steady passenger growth (6% year-over-year) and revenue increases, noting that passenger retention rates are currently below the 20% target but have historically peaked in the 30s. Financial reports highlighted the removal of pandemic-era COVID funds from the budget for the upcoming year and the need to recoup funds from active FAA and state projects.
- FAA Tower HVAC Replacement (Item 7A): Discussion focused on replacing aging air conditioning and heating equipment in the FAA air traffic control tower to manage extreme humidity and temperature fluctuations caused by the large glass structure. The project includes a boiler for dehumidification and an upgrade to the Johnson Controls HVAC software for monitoring. Staff noted this was an unbudgeted, unexpected expense.
- Mayo Clinic Employee Lease (Item 7V): Staff proposed leasing 744 square feet of previously unused space near Gate One to Mayo Clinic for an employee lounge. Mayo is funding all construction and improvements. The lease is for five years plus a five-year option at $0.2596 per square foot. Staff noted the space will include food and drink provided by Mayo, relieving a potential revenue loss for the airport, and will offer free Wi-Fi to patients via the clinic's network.
- United Therapeutics Land Lease (Item 7C): Discussion centered on a 40-year land lease with United Therapeutics for the construction of a 40,000 square foot hangar and base infrastructure. United Therapeutics agreed to invest a minimum of $9 million for the hangar and $5.5 million for infrastructure (taxiways, apron, utilities, roads), with the airport securing a $1 million grant from MnDOT to offset infrastructure costs. The lease includes a 75% rental credit for the tenant's investment in infrastructure. The agreement allows for future development of additional hangars on adjacent land.
- Engineering Services Notice: Staff provided an informational update on the upcoming five-year solicitation for engineering and architectural services, a requirement by the FAA. No vote was required as this is a prerequisite for future projects rather than a specific project approval.
- Other Business:
- International Relations Committee (IRC): Staff confirmed the IRC has requested a discussion regarding the installation of a display or flags identifying Rochester's sister cities.
- Zoning Update (Jazzby): Staff provided an update on the joint zoning committee (JAZZBY). The first meeting to elect leadership occurred on November 21st. The next technical meeting is scheduled for January 23rd to discuss the custom zoning ordinance. A public hearing is expected in February or March before final adoption.
Key Outcomes
- Motion Approved (Item 7A): The Commission voted unanimously to approve the replacement of the FAA tower's HVAC and humidity control systems.
- Motion Approved (Item 7V): The Commission voted unanimously to approve the five-year lease agreement with Mayo Clinic for the employee lounge.
- Motion Approved (Item 7C): The Commission voted unanimously to approve the land lease and development agreement with United Therapeutics for the new hangar and infrastructure.
- Next Steps: Staff will return to the Commission in March with the selected engineering firm and in early 2026 with the final Zoning Ordinance for public hearing and adoption.
Meeting Transcript
Um yeah, hold on. Just missed the tax a little bit. Go ahead. Okay, we're gonna call the airport commission meeting to order at 2 p.m. on December 2nd. And we always start with our open comment period, but there is no one in the room. So we need unless someone has an objection, we'll just move on. Um and so uh we have a quorum. No one's online, so we don't need to uh don't sleep the roll call, but we're all here. Anyone have any issues with the order of the agenda as it was sent to you? Okay, so we have a consent agenda before us, and on there is the our is uh 4A. It's the minutes of the October 7th meeting. And we have a motion to approve those. I make that motion. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Does anybody have any issues, comments, questions? Okay, if not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed. So we have approved the minutes, and now we go to our fun reports. John, who's gonna Yeah, Kyle Kyle walk us through these as well as the um requirements. So we have the airport uh operational and marketing data is 5A and 5B as airport financials. And Mary's not with us today, so we could probably take take uh wait for Mary to talk further when she comes back. Okay. Yeah, starting with the uh organizational objectives. Um we are close on our employments number. We may still hit it for that in the year. Um depends on what November and December look like, but uh we're pretty darn close. Um similar with uh seats available. We had a little bit of a bump in November. So that should help us get five percent. Um and uh passenger retention. I don't think we're gonna make that 20%, but we'll still keep trying for it. Um our overall passengers are steadily increasing as they have all year. Um we're at uh I think six percent year over year um altogether. And uh our load factors went down just a little bit, but it's also because our uh capacity has increased uh a little bit as well, with the actually the American capacity increasing quite a bit um over the previous month. Can we ask a question on the passenger retention? What is that exactly? So it so we have a we have a um a defined um um area um based based on the federal government, and so that's our um um a retention area as it would be. Think of it maybe as an MSA, but but a little bit more expanded. It goes up towards the cities for whatever reason, you know, we we go over to towards lacrosse, but it doesn't count lacrosse and a little bit of Iowa. And so you look at uh the volume of tickets that are actually purchased in that area, and so this that tells us what uh percentage of that that we're retaining. I see. So it's not retention of previous RST passengers, it's retention of your geographics, correct? Yeah, so uh I would say, you know, um I don't know, a couple times a year, uh maybe quarterly, we were able to pull DOT data and look within the zip codes of that area for anybody who's purchased the ticket and see where they bought it from to so forth. Yeah, yeah. And John we peaked in the 30s. We did pre-pandemic, we were right at 30 percent, but a lot of work. Um we were sub-15% at about 2015, then of course United came into the market.
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