'We need a win': Tri-Cities Airport board debates Aerospace Park consultant contract

KINGSPORT — Tri-Cities Airport Authority board members spent more than 20 minutes of Thursday's meeting discussing whether to approve a one-year contract extension for the current Aerospace Park consultant. The prior agreement with JLL expired in December 2025, and proposed the extension to continue their marketing and brokerage services. As presented, the extension would leave the company's rates and other material terms the same — but a $4,000 monthly fee would be split equally between NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership and TCAA. During the Feb. 26 meeting, the board decided to approve JLL's contract on a month-to-month basis until the next TCAA meeting or a decision was made. Since then, the consultant was reported to have met with members of the board's Economic Development Committee virtually to present an updated report on the park. "I think that most of us at the Economic Development Committee, I guess for lack of better terms, say we need a win," board vice-chair Mark Ireson said about the absence of recent activity at Aerospace Park. "Having years and years of nothing is not OK. We're not really happy with the direction right now." Aerospace Park is a 160-acre aviation development located beside the Tri-Cities Airport. The park welcomed its first tenant, Final Forge, in April 2022. JLL's initial contract started on December 15, 2023, Times News previously reported. Ireson said after hearing the recent report from the consultant, he liked that JLL is looking at different options for the park, but still needed to see tangible results. TCAA President and CEO Gene Cossey said Tri-Cities Airport Director of Business Development Mark Canty and JLL consultant David Lotterer, among others, were out Thursday actively marketing Aerospace Park at the MRO Americas convention in Florida. Small wins A report from Lotterer about the park's current status was included in the board's agenda packet for the meeting. Cossey said the report detailed some of the issues the park is facing, including being a tertiary market. He remarked that Aerospace Park had seen "some wins," despite those wins being small. "Final Forge out there is a great win for us, it's just we've only had the one win, really, of Final Forge," Cossey said. "We've had some other little small wins here and there. We've got the guy adjacent to Aerospace Park that's developing brand new technology that as soon as he really gets that brand new technology finalized, and he gets into a production stage, Aerospace Park is where he's going to move into." Cossey said he felt JLL is doing the necessary work to bring tenants to Aerospace Park and called the relationship with the company important. Board member Cathy Ball, who represents Johnson City, made a motion to continue the contract for an additional year. The motion was seconded by Kenneth Huffine, who represents Washington County on the board. Chairman J. Parker Smith started to ask for votes on the recommendation when board member Todd Hensley asked for further discussion on the subject. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, we need to have some discussion here," Hensley said. Cossey said he and other leaders who work with JLL could and will do a better job of demanding better communication about Aerospace Park. "Unfortunately, it's one of those situations where we all have 90 million things we're all working on in different directions, and we haven't held them up to the accountability they need to communicate back to us," he said. What's next? Ireson said if the board chose not to extend JLL's contract, he did not know of other options for companies who do the same kind of work, since it is such a niche market. "It just means we're now looking for even another person who can be out representing us in areas that we don't necessarily have the connections or the breadth that JLL has," Cossey commented. The board formally decided to table the decision while Cossey and NETWORKS Sullivan Partnership CEO Clay Walker bring some of the board's concerns to the consultant at a later date. "I would think this is something maybe, since we're both paying the monthly fee together, that Clay [Walker] and I go to David [Lotterer] and negotiate changes to this that are reflecting what the board has just expressed," Cossey said. "And we either bring those back in July, or we tell you that JLL has declined to continue." Walker said if it is the board's will to continue with the JLL contract at Aerospace Park, NETWORKS will follow suit.