Afterglow Aircraft Solutions to Lease Space At Little Rock Airport

The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission on Tuesday approved business terms that will allow Afterglow Aircraft Solutions of Springdale to locate operations at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.

Afterglow offers aircraft interior and paint refurbishments and detailing. According to the lease agreement, the company has operations at five other airports in Springdale; Fayetteville; Shreveport, Louisiana; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The company will lease space in an existing hangar at the Airport Business Park that was formerly occupied by Hawker Beechcraft Inc. of Wichita, Kansas. Afterglow will initially lease 11,871 SF, but it plans to expand to 31,925 SF with a workforce of about 60.

General Manager Josh Spielmaker said the company has about 25 employees now and expects to hire another 60 over the next five years; those 60 will work at the Little Rock location.

He said Afterglow hopes its Little Rock location will be operational by the end of next month or by the beginning of March.

More: See the terms for the lease.

“We are excited to start a new chapter in our company’s history,” Afterglow Owner Jonathan Rose said in a news release. “We want to express our deep appreciation for the generous support and help along the way from Mr. Mack McLarty, the team at Clinton National Airport and the Little Rock Regional Chamber as we have been working toward this expansion.”

Phase I of the five-year lease agreement is for $64,797.75 per year, which includes more than $62,000 to lease hangar and office space, along with ramp utilization and parking space. The third phase of the lease agreement, which encompasses more than 31,925 SF, is worth more than $111,000 per year.

Spielmaker told Arkansas Business late Tuesday, “We actually have a lot of customers that are based in Little Rock and we work a lot with Dassault Falcon, and we’ve been wanting to get something going in Little Rock. And the facility there presented itself, and we were excited to be given the opportunity to lease that space.”

Afterglow was founded by Rose in 2010, and Rose represents the third generation of family owned and operated Rose Aircraft Services Inc. of Mena. 

“Making a bigger economic impact to our city and state is the airport commission’s primary goal,” Ronald Mathieu, executive director of the Clinton National Airport, said in the release. “By helping companies, like Afterglow, expand at the airport, additional highly skilled jobs are created, which are essential in maintaining Arkansas’ strong aerospace and aviation sector.”

Hawker Beechcraft declared bankruptcy on May 3, 2012. The company had been paying $587,626 annually to the airport as part of an agreement that included 11.5 acres of ramp space. Hawker closed the facility in November 2012; its lease had been set to expire in 2037.

Since then, other tenants have taken over the space: Lynx FBO Network (55,882 SF) and Envoy Air (47,626 SF).

Spielmaker added, “The opportunities in Little Rock are fantastic, not just with the facilities, but also with the opportunity for manpower. With the shutdown of the Hawker Beechcraft facility, that displaced a lot of workers. We’re hoping to be able to acquire some of those workers that had been there, even in that same facility.”

He also said, “Right now, the aviation industry is booming, especially in what we do. We have a bit of a unique niche in that we offer detailing as well as refurbishment. We also do a lot of revitalization, or what some people might call restoration, as well, where we are taken what people have existing and making it better. And we also offer the service of completely redoing paint and interiors.”

Spielmaker explained that businesses are growing, so they need aircraft, and more individuals are owning aircraft as a hobby. Afterglow benefits because it works with those individuals, corporate flight departments and with larger freight carriers.