Buyer Plans To Close The Airport And  Build An Industrial Park

The oldest privately owned commercial airport in the state of Massachusetts has been sold to a developer who plans to build an industrial park on the property.

The MetroWest Daily News reports that Sandy Stetson sold the 96-year-old Marlboro Airport (9B1) to Capital Group  Properties for $2.25 million. The transaction closed December 20th. It had been listed for sale ... reluctantly, according to the report .. in late 2016 for $3 million during a downturn in the industry.

Stetson and her husband Bob purchased the airport in 1999. Bob Stetson passed away in 2012.

The transaction has been pending for some time. The developer initially planned to build a 114-unit retirement village on the property, but that proposal met with resistance from residents and some elected officials. The land is zoned for limited industrial use.

Current plans call for the construction of a road and five to 13 small industrial buildings.  

The airport was founded in 1922 and averaged as many as 30 flights per day on busy days. But as more flight instruction has been taken over by simulators to reduce cost, there were fewer people coming to the airport. "I don't have to sit here, day after day, waiting for no one to come," Stetson told the MetroWest Daily News.

FMI: Source report