Despite financial struggles, Stephenville airport owner says plans aren't grounded
Carl Dymond says he ran out of money but has new investor coming on board
Carl Dymond acknowledges that he has struggled to overcome financial hurdles after taking over Stephenville's airport but says he hasn't wavered from his original plans to develop the fledgling facility.
Dymond told CBC News he has been trying to raise capital to proceed with those plans for Stephenville, on Newfoundland's west coast, but it's difficult to attract investors in a country where privatized airports are not commonplace.
"A lot of the investment firms just don't have experience in public transport. Most non-profits, like airport authorities, can't avail of traditional lending. So they raise prices, they raise rates and fees at the airports, and then they're subsidized by the government," he said in an interview this week.
"For us, we are the first ones to own a private international airport in Canada, so the fundraising has been difficult in that regard. But we found someone who understands the space that we're in."
He says a U.K. investor is coming aboard to take on a minority stake in his business, but declined to disclose their identity.
Dymond says it has been unexpectedly difficult to raise cash.
"We struggled with the financing for it," he said. "We thought it would be significantly easier."
But he insists his plans for a "world-class airport" are still on track.
Since Dymond announced his intention to acquire the Stephenville airport nearly three years ago, he has repeatedly said he will create thousands of jobs, spending hundreds of millions in private money.
That includes building a manufacturing facility for giant futuristic cargo drones and the return of scheduled passenger service.
Asked whether some of those promises may have been premature, Dymond acknowledged, "They might have been at the time."
But Dymond insisted that he has stayed true to his pledge to not take taxpayer dollars to advance his plans.
"We made promises that we intend to keep entirely, but no one's on the hook for what we're doing.… Your tax dollars didn't go towards my idea," Dymond said.
"My money went towards it — and I ran out of it."
$2.4M lien filed against airport in May
According to public records, the Dymond-led numbered company that owns the airport has an outstanding debt of $2.4 million to the contractor that installed a new runway lighting system.
Tristar Electric completed that work this spring. The company filed a lien against the airport in May, claiming that it hasn't been paid.
Dymond told CBC News that the matter should soon be resolved.
"We think that's going to be lifted in the next couple of days," Dymond said on Tuesday. "We've developed a payment plan with Tristar."
He suggested CBC News contact a Tristar official for confirmation of that.
The company did not respond to inquiries from CBC News about the lien last week, or again this week.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the lien remained active.
Negotiations ongoing with town over taxes
The sale of the airport has been trumpeted by the Stephenville town council as a future revenue generator for the community.
The airport has been in private hands for nearly a year, but that windfall has yet to materialize.
Dymond says he's in negotiations with the town to pay a grant in lieu of taxes but that process is ongoing.
He says the tax bill has traditionally been over $400,000 per year, but they hope to pay less than that.
"We asked for a grant in lieu of taxes, where we put in $40,000 to $100,000 into the town as a tax and then the rest is wrote off so that we take that money and develop jobs and infrastructure around the airport so that we're not spending all of our money paying taxes," he said. "We're spending that money to create more taxpayers, essentially."
In an email to CBC News, the Town of Stephenville said there's been no decision made by council on the grant in lieu.
The town indicated it's still under review, but no timeline has been set for a decision.
Passenger service returning soon, Dymond says
Dymond also said he has signed an agreement to bring passenger service back to the airport this year but would not say who would provide it.
"In the fall, before the end of 2024, we will have a passenger service," Dymond said.
"We have a deal signed with the airline now. We're just waiting for everything to line up with regards to the projects."
In the past, Dymond has repeatedly stressed that money would not be an issue in moving forward.
The sale of the airport took nearly two years to complete. The process dragged on, in part because of a historic insolvency proceeding involving the airport. The final price tag was $6.90, plus the payment of more than $1 million in existing liabilities.
According to public records, to secure the airport property, a Dymond company borrowed $1.1 million from Matthew Poppel — a Saskatoon man who won a $55-million LottoMax windfall in 2021.
'3 major announcements' pending
Signs of progress have been slow over the past year. But Dymond says that should soon change.
He told CBC News there are plans for "three major announcements" in the next month, although he can't provide details at this point.
"We think that's going to be exciting and people are going to see from that, and with this investment coming in, that the proof is going to be there for everyone to see," he said.
"Everything that we promised three years ago is going to come to fruition."
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