Here’s a real estate deal not often seen — a private airport with a 2,240-foot asphalt runway on 40 acres for sale in Abbeville.
Asking price: $1,497,50.
Known as SC81 by the Federal Aviation Administration, the airport once was home to a flight school run by Michele Keilman. She and her husband Ken decided to sell because they were spending most of their time in the Tampa, Florida, area where Mrs. Keilman has run other flight schools.
Realtor Todd Harper of Wilson Kibler said the airport, located at 82 Hanger Road about 2 miles south of historic downtown Abbeville, was developed in the 1950s and served for a time as Abbeville’s community airport.
Kielman bought it about 20 years ago, he said.
The property includes 8 acres zoned for residential. The rest is zoned commercial. There is a single family home on the property that the Keilmans recently renovated.
The runway is not long enough to handle jets, but there is room for expansion, Harper said. Typically, small jets can land on 6,000-foot runways.
Harper envisions the property as a home for a wealthy aviation enthusiast with plenty of room for a large house, a group of fliers or as a flight school or other aviation-related business.
“It’s very rare to get an asphalt runway,” he said.
And rare too to find an airport for sale.
In his research he’s found fewer than five.
There is a 5,000-square-foot hangar, five outdoor covered pushback hangars, five outdoor tie downs for general aviation planes and multiple entry points for the vacant land surrounding it, which is largely wooded.
Another use for the property is for aviation groups that do camp outs.
“It is a beautiful area,” Harper said. “State parks, natural forest, the Savannah River in the middle of South Carolina.”
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