2021 Airport Business Project of the Year: A New Galaxy Set to Transform HOU

• Location: William P. Hobby Airport
• Project: Galaxy Aviation William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) Fixed Base Operator + Hangar Facility
• Cost:
• Completion: May 2020
• Key Participants: PGAL, Kimley-Horn

Galaxy FBO strengthened its position in the Houston market with the creation of a new FBO and hangars at Houston Hobby International Airport (HOU).

The facility includes two 39,770-square-foot aircraft hangars and one 24,220-square-foot FBO terminal to support general and corporate aviation operations. It also includes associated site work including aircraft parking areas, a fuel island and landside vehicular parking lot.

The facility took about 18 months to complete. It opened in June 2020.

“There’s a lot of people based here and a lot of people who want to be based here,” Jeremy Gee, CEO of Galaxy FBO said. “We have a FBO at Conroe already so why not expand it to Hobby to field more hangar space and allow those people who want to be at Hobby to be at the airport.”

The Black Forest Ventures Galaxy FBO provides a luxury lounge experience. The use of both contrasting colors and textures provides the customer a more inviting atmosphere.

The foyer entry, VIP Lounge and concourse offer expansive views and bring in natural light. The spaces provide passengers an inviting area to enjoy the offered amenities for long periods of time. The concourse offers a coffee and refresh bar, a custom wine cellar and varied types of seating. The VIP Lounge includes a 90-degree window wall, full bar, and premium finishes.

“The FBO industry thrives on the customer experience so we build the FBO with a view to how the customer would see it,” Gee said. “Building a sensible flow through the facility was key. It changed the shape somewhat to ensure that flow is fairly natural and service can be key at any point there can be interaction.”

The Terminal building includes amenities such as a customer lounge, conference rooms, crew lounge, quiet room and shower, flight planning room and operations support spaces. The pilots’ lounge offers a kitchenette, private shower room, quiet room and a TV lounge.

Customer-facing areas have a consistent aesthetic as one moves throughout the different spaces. The use of large format, stone-like tiles on the floors give a sense of grand luxury but is contrasted by softer materials such as wood veneer panels and trim work.

The overall palette plays with both warm and cool tones yet retains the more comfortable neutrals for hues.

PGAL worked in partnership with civil engineers Kimley-Horn to design the new FBO and Hangar project at Hobby International Airport (HOU).

PGAL’s scope of services includes architecture, interior architecture including furniture selection and consultant coordination for FBO and aircraft hangar building packages.

Ivan Pire, principal with PGAL, said the terminal and hangars were built to maximize space and be durable while still providing a luxury experience for FBO customers.

“We tried to maximize the site for rentable possibilities for storage of aircraft. We first created some robust site plans and mobile diagrams and coordinated with the developer and the airport to bring maximum value for the square footage of the site,” he said. “The developer and the operator have a lot of competition at this airport, so one of the biggest goals was to maximize every square inch of that site for their financial needs.”

Pire said the interior of the FBO uses materials such as wood and stone, and contemporary design to furniture. It gives customers the feel of a five-star hotel and not just a terminal.

“We wanted to select materials that were warm yet durable,” he said. “We needed to make sure the facility was still maintainable throughout the life of their lease, but still bringing that level of chic and sophistication that clientele would be accustomed to.”

Design of the facility began right after Hurricane Harvey. Six-inch concrete curbs were constructed around every building that were gasketed in to protect parked airplanes from sheet flow of water from driving rain.  

The entire facility was built on a greenfield site on the south side of HOU. The area allows space for two more potential hangars.

“An FBO needs a big ramp and that’s difficult to come by so you need a big space,” Gee said. “This space was a good shape for the buildings we wanted to put in and the size of the ramp we wanted to put in to make sure operations could be maximized throughout that ramp while not hamstringing us by building too small of a ramp.”

The one hangar has office space as well which allows four individual flight departments or maintenance crews to operate out of the facility. The other hangar has an indoor parking facility behind it to allow valet services and for staff to take care of customer vehicles without leaving them out in the scorching Texas sun.

“We have a large amount of offices overall, almost 80,000 square feet of office space,” Gee said. “We’re looking for about 20 to 25 tenants. Each of those has an option for an office.”

The hangars are pre-engineered metal with an upgraded skin consisting of a 3-inch insulated panel instead of the typical corrugated panel, Pire said. The design was fully customized, so only the steel came from the manufacturer.

“We used a box truss at the front of the hangar and we actually leaned all of the structure to the front of the door,” Pire said. “We created a lot of volume on the inside of the hangar because there’s a sensibility of a client will want to come into a hangar and wants to see a lot of volume and natural light, so there are real windows instead of fiberglass windows you’d typically see in hangars. “We also had a concrete floor epoxied in white so light reflects from the floor and you can see under the aircraft.”

Gee said Galaxy beefed up its management systems prior to opening and made sure it got the right team on board before opening for business. It provided a blueprint for opening a new system that he said they could use in the future as well.

“The need for travel still exists. We can see that by the operations numbers on the field. We want to make sure we’re the right place and a good option for people and maintain the quality of our service with the right price point,” Gee said. “We want to do it fairly with a local flavor at the right price.”