Legend's ghost haunts Love City to consider how to handle terminal as part of Wright solution
12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, June 3, 2006 By EMILY RAMSHAW and SUZANNE MARTA / The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas City Council will vote Wednesday to study options for acquiring the former Legend Airlines terminal at Dallas Love Field ? including seizing the property through eminent domain.
The proposal is in response to comments from the terminal's operators that they are negotiating to sell the building to an unnamed commercial airline, Mayor Laura Miller said.
The turn of events marks the latest twist in the debate over whether to lift Wright amendment restrictions at Love Field that limit most commercial flights to a nine-state region.
Ms. Miller is working with Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief to reach a compromise on the restrictions; Dallas' deadline is June 14.
"We need to make it very clear to the public that we don't anticipate there being airlines operating out of that facility ever again," Ms. Miller said. "It's a bit premature from the bigger issue at hand, but once you're on notice that a deal is being done you don't want on your property, you need to respond."
The owners of the former Legend terminal say they're in "exclusive negotiations" with a publicly held commercial carrier to buy a 30-acre parcel that includes the six-gate facility.
Alan R. Naul, asset manager for Love Field Terminal Partners, said he wasn't surprised by the city's agenda item. But he said any condemnation would come at a price.
"It doesn't make sense to me for the city to spend money to tear down a beautiful new terminal," he said. "I don't think they have any clear idea how much this facility is worth."
The property has room for the Legend terminal to grow and is not restricted by the Love Field Master Plan, Mr. Naul said. The 2001 master plan, intended to limit growth at Love, capped the airport at 32 gates.
Mr. Naul said that as a privately owned facility, the property would not be subject to gate-sharing plans at public-owned terminals.
Mr. Naul said the company's long-term lease includes "specific rights to build as many gates as we want."
Officials at American Airlines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., Continental Airlines Inc.,
ExpressJet Airlines, AirTran Airways Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. said they were unaware of plans at their carriers to purchase the Love terminal.
The possibility of additional gates at Love could throw a wrench into negotiations between Dallas and Fort Worth over a local Wright compromise.
Ms. Miller has suggested that the former Legend gates should be demolished to make Love Field smaller. That could reduce adverse financial effects on Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and traffic and noise concerns for some neighborhood groups.
"We have discussed internally for many months now what we want to do with the Legend terminal long-term, since it's no longer being used for airplanes," Ms. Miller said. "We want to make sure any prospective buyers of that leasehold are aware the city of Dallas does not intend for that to be used for airplanes in the future." Mr. Moncrief said Friday that he wasn't aware Dallas had posted anything on its agenda. But he said that the Dallas council is "acting responsibly," and that he supports the decision.
"If the terminal were to be sold to another carrier by the current owner, that could throw a real kink in everything we're trying to do, and options we have been exploring," Mr. Moncrief said.
Mr. Naul said his firm has not been contacted by the city of Dallas to buy the property, which is under a long-term lease. He cited independent studies that valued the terminal at more than $100 million, assuming it was a going concern. Airline interest in the facility was piqued after Missouri was exempted from Wright's restrictions in November, he said.
The $20 million terminal opened in 2000 as the home of Legend Airlines' aircraft-wide first-class service to key business markets. Legend went bankrupt later that year, and the terminal has remained vacant. The property includes a former maintenance hangar for Dalfort Aviation.
On Wednesday, the City Council will meet in executive session to discuss the resolution. If members authorize City Manager Mary Suhm to study options for the Legend terminal, she'll have until Aug. 16 to report back to them.
"What happens with the Legend gates does not impact Southwest operations," said Whitney Eichinger, a spokeswoman for Southwest, which backs repealing the 1979 Wright law.
A spokesman for American, which opposes changing the federal restrictions, said demolishing the six Legend gates may not be enough to limit Love's size. E-mail eramshaw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx and smarta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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