Ganim Skeptical Stratford Can Make Better Offer For Airport Than State Authority

Who’s better suited to manage Sikorsky Memorial Airport, the Connecticut Airport Authority that operates Bradley International or the Town of Stratford, with no experience in that area and never a fan of Bridgeport’s city-owned facility inside its borders?

The airport authority is offering $10 million plus additional investment to transform the commercially dormant Sikorsky into a regional hub for renewed passenger service. Aviation technology and proximity to Fairfield County’s gold coast fuses market opportunities.

Last week Stratford Mayor Laura Hoydick pledged a forthcoming purchase offer. Mayor Joe Ganim says he’s willing to listen for a few weeks but anticipates a deal in the end with the state.

The airport commission, dominated by Bridgeport representatives, as well as the City Council, must ultimately approve a transaction of the city-owned airport located in Stratford.

From CT Post:

But Ganim said he believes the pending deal to sell the city-owed, Stratford-based facility to the Connecticut Airport Authority is the best option for reviving commercial passenger service, which ended there over two decades ago.

“I’d be hard-pressed as mayor to go in a different direction with this opportunity on the table,” Ganim said this week in his first public comments on what he called Hoydick’s “eleventh hour” play late last week for Bridgeport’s airport.

Ganim said he hoped the Hoydick administration will provide more details by the next meeting of the city’s airport commission in early April. Hoydick has a seat on that body, which helps oversee Sikorsky, with the remaining members Bridgeport officials including the mayor, City Council president, city clerk and municipal finance director.

“Let’s give them a couple weeks,” Ganim said. “But I think at the end of the day, unless something changes dramatically, this (the CAA) is the only real opportunity. … They are the only ones able to move this airport to the next level as a viable commercial location in Fairfield County that will rival by convenience and location Westchester (Airport in New York).”

Full story here.

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11 comments

  1. To Jeff’s point, the Port shouldn’t be selling its assets. I read an article about the new lease with the current operators that would eliminate the Port’s deficit with a rent increase of $800,000 plus $300,000 in new fees and significant infrastructure investments. This means they had been given a deal on the backs of Port’s taxpayers.

    The article also stated Christoph of Steelpoint wants to bid on running it. So the optimal assessment would be to let all parties including CAA bid on a 20-year lease with investments that are best favorable to the Port.

    Clearly, it is not that the airport can’t be favorable to the Port and its tax base. It’s deals made by the city administrations and elected officials that deprive the Port of such favorable outcomes to third parties who proportionally are favored in their financial gain, on the back of the Port’s tax base. JS No 🙂

    In conclusion, it would be retracted to sell it. When no one is really minding the story the candy gets stolen. JS
    At any rate, keeping with the retardedness and M&Ms. Peace out People.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yU_-nmf7AM

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  2. Either Joe Ganim is a complete fool or a lying piece of shit. I happen to think he’s both. Just off the top of his head, he thinks that the Town of Stratford can’t or won’t be able to make a better deal than the State of Connecticut, regarding the sale of Sikorsky Airport. Great, just what we need in Bridgeport, a mayor who is closed minded, intellectually near sighted and sells off valuable City of Bridgeport assets for no reason other than he is a self-serving, career criminal, who needs to be removed from office, like cancer from a patient. Mayor Hoydick is right, the City of Bridgeport has no right to sell Sikorsky Airport in a no bid process. Not to mention, that if the State of Connecticut or any other entity can make a go of Sikorsky Airport, then why couldn’t the City of Bridgeport make better use of this valuable resource while they’ve owned it? Up till now, Sikorsky Airport has been an almost bottomless pit of wasted money for the City of Bridgeport. I for one, am sick and tired of living in a city, run by a corrupt political machine and thus being the recipient of all the crap that runs downhill from that. Mayor Ganim, the people of Bridgeport need to make you go away, we need honest, capable leadership in Bridgeport and you’re not it.

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  3. For sale 375 acres of lush lawns, shady glades and sports fields rolling toward Long Island Sound, Seaside Park is a park without peer on the Eastern Seaboard. You’ll be delighted by the beaches, surf and sunshine along three miles of sparkling coastline. 375 Acres of water front property please Call.

    Ask for Joe
    203-576-7201

    Also for Sale Two 18 hole Golf Course’s
    The 18-hole Red course at the Fairchild Wheeler Golf Course facility in Fairfield, features 6,568 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 72. The course rating is 71.3 and it has a slope rating of 124 on Rye grass. Designed by Robert White, the Red golf course opened in 1931. Stephen Roach, PGA manages the course as the Golf Professional.
    Ask for Joe
    203-576-7201

    Brokers protected

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  4. Are you a bit confused with airport talk?
    Do you fly professionally or lease or own a private plane? Since you do not fly from our region and have not done so for most of 20 years, you may be forgiven for overlooking the business enterprise that up until now spends more money each year than it takes in by an average half million. And now the Mayor does not even bother to talk about the loss of future opportunity for the City if the Airport is sold. Something from the past comments to the CC.
    Stratford has an idea, an offer, fresh from their planning enterprise, but very late to this effort and discussion, it seems. Where are the numbers? And if numbers are real from a Stratford backer or CAA or a third party, why do rental revenues jump so greatly in the recent news coverage? What is someone guessing or do they know that the Bridgeport taxpayer has been left out of for too long, holding the bag, so to speak?What will the Bridgeport taxpayer owe, receive or break even with dollar wise when any deal mentioned gets done? Will time tell or will we have to wait yet more time?

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  5. JMl, I am not a numbers man but if the Feds just sunk 40 million in the airport, at a price of 10 million it is a steal for anyone, Stratford included. That’s not counting the actual value of the land, perse.

    With an open bid process on the lease of the property and one that already eliminated the Port losing money on the property, includes a profit. It is a no-brainer to not sell a property with more than 40 million in value in the investment.

    Jon, contrary to your assessment of Joe it is not solely up to him what is best for the Port and the airport. If the airport commission and elected officials vote to sell the property it just gave the airport and its 30 million-plus in investment in value away.

    Anyone should be removed from their duties as a Port stalwart ship if the sale goes through for selling out the Port for whatever goodies they received. Especially with a bid on the table that eliminates the Port’s financial liability of the airport operations and generates a profit. JS People.

    P.S A nutless monkey can do a better job than what the Port has seen over the decades of mismanagement. 🙂

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PFeJJYMxbw

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  6. RT, Just because the Feds were part of a plan to create modern and safer runways that called for more than $44 Million of investment by them and CT and Bridgeport, did it all get done as initially proposed? I assume so but I have no certification that is necessarily happened. Ganim2 nor those in airport operations do not bother to maintain an open, accountable, and transparent spotlight, so honesty can be in question at any time.
    The value of up to $50 Million of improvements in the past decade, without significant added use by revenue payers, may lead one to suggest that the Feds were wrong. And the larger question may be what is the game changer element for a “20 year period” that suggests increased revenues to whomever owns the land, and continues to operate an airport? Why is it unreasonable to have a City Board or Commission share what is on their collective minds (or what they are following from the Mayor’s office, if that is where leadership sits today)?
    Forgive me if I seem to speak poorly of our land use, valuation, and long term handling of assets owned by the City. However, when Ganim2 asked for a second chance in leading Bridgeport to a brighter future, it seems that he stopped advancing well conceived plans, reviewing results annually, and taking any serious responsibility for whether or not we are moving forward. For example in a recent Fairfield County Housing and demographic survey the results of Bridgeport students from CT test data is graphed and compared to the expense of educating each public school student. Lowest in educational expense overall and poorest in K-12 results? Seems so. If Ganim2 cared about such graphical representations of Bridgeport folks, even though he is not on the BOE and it is not his primary lane, could he do something material to change, to review regularly, and secure success for citizens? Isn’t that the role of an administrative leader? Time will tell.

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  7. John, whatever the total investment of the 50 Million in improvements that were invested in the airport/property, clearly it was a game-changer, or we wouldn’t be behaving this conversation about offers to buy the property outright, especially by our neighboring town. Or a new lease proposal by the current operator/leaseholder that quadruples the rent they currently pay, with an additional increase in fees and investments. No?

    From my graphical representational viewpoint, G2 administration is more diverse than it has ever been in any prior Port administrations. It doesn’t matter though in this “RACIAL” identity politics because he’s white. Even though the other elected body, the city council, is majority black and Latino.

    I don’t know what materially can change for the Mayor to better secure success for Port students. We have to understand nearly half of the total city’s budget goes to 20 thousand residents for 180 days a year.

    However, the Port has seen throughout the years and before G2 a significant effort to secure
    success for Port students. The high schools are new or remolded with many other new and remolded lower class schools, be it public or charter. When I first tried to go back to school HCC was on Barnam Ave, in an industrial building. It was a joke, nothing stated higher education. Lucky they moved it to its current location the following year.

    However, the primary lane in education advocacy is always about funding. That being said, it took a pandemic for the BBOE to advance to secure success for Port students with computers/laptops, and funding was never an issue. The advocacy was nowhere to be found.

    Unlike the matrix to certify 50 million progress to the airport, we have CT test data for the Port’s public schools that can be examined. However, I would bet that tech is not being utilized to its fullest potential to secure success. You will not hear a peep either, probably because it’s not a lane educational advocacies/BBOE care to travel. Remember it took them/BBOE a pandemic to implement personal laptops that most of Fairfield County. If it wasn’t for covid the Port students would still be without them. Data is only as useful as who it’s looked at.

    Your right though, it’s not G2’s primary lane as mayor. Maybe the BBOE is a better place to express those educational concerns. Many factors go into comparison to Port and other towns in Fairfield Country that go into any date to compare the outcome of one’s education

    The Port has a lot of ESL students/residents. Being one of them, although, for different reasons. I can say with confidence. I have been in quite a few packet classes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zoN-gI87vk

    To be honest, while I did get kicked out of class/campus for my “ORAL” report on God and the American Flag at NCC, their overall education was better. The teachers were more involved and engaged. There were some at HCC, but NCC is a far better educational institution, in my experience.

    That attitude properly trickles down into the Port’s public school system/BBOE as well. If fact, I graduated from two Port public schools, Central, that I went to full-time and Bullard Haven Tech, share-time, in the evening. At the end of the day/graduation, to say the least, I wasn’t even spelling my last name correctly. I’m sure I wasn’t the only student that slipped through the Port’s educational crack.

    To be fair though. I was special. Also, my last name has more vowels than consonants, two (i)’s two (e)’s. They don’t even do anything. They’re there just for F$%k you up.🤣

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PI0v2ZWDl0&t=82s

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  8. “…State Sen. Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, was involved in the announcement alongside Hoydick, calling for Stratford to have a chance to purchase the property through an open bidding process and criticizing the state for an “overreach of power.”

    “State Reps. Joe Gresko and Phil Young, both Democrats that represent Stratford, have suggested the town should seek further input from town residents, in the form of a referendum, before purchasing the airport.

    “Gresko said it’s important to know what town residents think about “big issues” and called this a “big issue.”

    “Council chair Chris Pia, council member William O’Brien, both Republicans, and Republican Town Committee chair Lou DeCilio this week said they thought — like Hoydick — that a referendum was not necessary. Council members Jean Marie Sutton and Laura Dancho, on the other hand, said the referendum question was premature at this point in the process.

    “Two Republicans questioned Gresko’s allegiances on the referendum point, since Gresko is a part-time environmental sustainability staffer for Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim.

    ‘“Who is Joe Gresko representing on the issue because he is conflicted,” said Republican town council member James Connor, who did not say whether he supported the sale or a referendum.’

    DeCilio also raised the issue, noting Gresko is on Ganim’s payroll. He wondered why Bridgeport was not conducting a referendum on whether to sell the airport…”

    Why don’t our CC reps seek direct input for us on such Bridgeport issues (via referendum)?! In Bridgeport, the “Pay your taxes and shut-up! Or just move if you don’t like it!” has been the de facto City Hall policy and, unfortunately, the Bridgeport, political zeitgeist since even before 1991 — probably because the state/region would rather just placate our pols so that they can do what they want with Bridgeport on behalf of “the Region”…

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