Published June 8, 2016: Grand Forks Herald
By Brandi Jewett
With a hefty toss, pilot Adam Overvold sent a fixed-wing aircraft soaring into the air Wednesday above Grand Sky business park.
Nearby, about a dozen bystanders watched the unmanned aircraft circle an empty patch of land west of Grand Forks Air Force Base—land that many hope will one day contain office buildings and aircraft hangars.
The flight, conducted by personnel with ISight RPV Services, marks a step forward, as the first fixed-wing flown at the aviation business park located on the base is one of many to come.
On Tuesday, the Grand Forks County Commission paved the way for those flights with the approval of two documents that allow the park to be considered fully operational.
“It’s really rewarding that we can now actually move on to getting the planes in the air and not just the procedural paperwork to allow it,” said Tom Swoyer Jr., president of Grand Sky Development Co. “Now we can go do it. And I think that’s important. It’s a huge step for Grand Sky.”
The first document is an airfield management agreement and passes on the responsibilities listed in an enhanced-use leases between the base and the county to subleaser and park developer, Grand Sky Development Co.
The commission also approved operating annexes for a joint-use agreement signed by the project partners in April. Those annexes cover much of the park’s day-to-day operations, such as flight, security and communication procedures. That document still requires a final signature from the Air Force before becoming official.
It’s signing will mark another milestone for a group of local leaders that have put years into planning and executing the project.
“Four years ago, this whole process started and there was a vision of what we have today, testing and calibrating drones,” said Tom Ford, government relations coordinator for Grand Forks County. “We have a functioning park now. It’s the cherry on top of the whole concept if you will.”
In the air
With those documents nearly squared away, Grand Sky personnel will shift their focus to getting tenant General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. up and flying.
General Atomics, which manufactures large drones such as the Predator line, has established a temporary facility at the park where it will start unmanned aircraft flight training later this summer. Construction of a permanent training academy is expected to start this year.
To the south, work continues on a building for anchor tenant Northrop Grumman Corp., which manufactures the large Global Hawk aircraft.
Swoyer said he hopes to announce more tenants in the next month or two.
“We certainly have companies planning visits, and once they’re able to make their names public, we’ll let people know who they are,” he added. “We’re on the path of working with some household name companies people would be familiar with when they come to Grand Sky to visit.”
Construction also is progressing around tenant buildings. Work continues on preparing concrete for the park’s taxiway and runway connection to base infrastructure.
Poured about 21 inches thick, the concrete forms a pad that covers a large portion of the 217-acre Grand Sky site. Much of the concrete is more than 50 decades old and in need of repairs that will allow large, expensive aircraft to safely travel over it.
This year, Swoyer would like to see the park visually shift away from the construction site it’s been for the past year to a functioning place of business, with plans for constructing security gate and landscaping among his goals.
“From my point of view, when you come into Grand Sky, you’ll be able to know what’s going on here,” he said. “It won’t be just construction trailers and bulldozers.”