A national company – Burrell Diversified Investments, LLC located in Aspen, Colorado – appears to have an economic development interest in a number of municipally owned airports in Florida.
The interest in the municipally owned airports seems to be part of a statewide plan to develop an alternate distribution system for freight carriers by building out municipally owned airports.
The Mayernick Group, an established state lobbying firm, represented Burrell Diversified Investments before the Florida Legislature in 2021 and 2022. In addition, The Mayernick Group registered with the City of Tallahassee to represent Burrell Diversified Investments and David Goldschmidt on January 20.
Goldschmidt is listed as the managing director of The Burrell Group.
Burrell Diversified Investments is also the parent company to Burrell Aviation LLC, which registered with the Florida Division of Corporations on August 18, 2021. Burrell Aviation has since registered Burrell Aviation Ocala LLC (1/25/2022), Burrell Aviation Sanford LLC (3/9/2022), and Burrell Aviation Brooksville (3/9/2022)
David Pollard, director of the City of Tallahassee’s Aviation Department, has been in talks with company representatives and said that the potential investment by the group lines up with the city’s strategic priorities. The investment is related to leasing space for hanger development, cargo logistics, and maintenance related activities.
Pollard expects that an agenda item will be ready to go before the Tallahassee City Commission in late April.
The Company’s Business Model
In late 2019, The Burrell Group formed The Burrell Aviation Group (“Burrell Aviation”) which is focused on meeting the growing demand for air cargo, freight and logistics solutions in the continental United States, Mexico, and Canada.
The website notes that the company, through a public-private partnership model involving federal, state, and local government, is in the process of repositioning regional and municipal airports that have been historically underutilized and currently operate outside of North America’s core supply chain.
The goal is to bring such airfield locations into the mainstream commercial network to provide a convenient, flexible, and cost-efficient alternative to major hub locations, where freight carriers are currently experiencing rapidly escalating price structures and congestion, delayed delivery times, as well as other inefficiencies.
The business model calls for Burrell Aviation to enter into long-term leases, typically 30 to 50 years, with municipally owned airports. In coordination with Burrell Aviation, these municipalities are dedicated to improving their airport infrastructure to accommodate a broad range of tenants through a sublease agreement structure.
The company also manages the construction of “build-to-suit” facilities to satisfy each client’s specific needs.
In late 2019, The Burrell Group acquired CW Earthworx, a Florida-based general contracting firm that specializes in construction, earth-moving, and utilities development. CW Earthworx has a growing fleet of heavy equipment to support the company’s construction related needs, as well as a qualified team of professionals capable of executing on the company’s long-term development objectives.
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Steve Stewart is a senior contributor at The Florida Capital Star. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tallahassee Regional Airport ” by Michael Rivera. CC BY-SA 3.0.
