Imagine a neighborhood where there are as many small planes as cars and where many residents make their daily commute from a runway, not a highway. What feels like something right out of The Jetsons futuristic cartoon is actually a novel new development rising out of a scenic piece of ground in Pocola, Oklahoma.
Billed as a “fly-in community,” Patriot Airpark is already buzzing with planes taking off and landing on its 2,300-foot grass runway for events and will soon feature commercial and residential development to include hangar homes, private residences that feature an attached airplane hangar for the ultimate man-garage.
“This is a terrific opportunity; the concept fits perfectly, and the timing was just right,” says project founder, developer, and visionary Alex Cardenas. “This property that we purchased here, with a runway that’s been here twenty years, was just perfect.”
Alex, who grew up locally, has always had an eye on the sky with a love for flight and thirst for adventure. As an adult, he got to fulfill both as a member of the United States Marines Corps where he was deployed to the Middle East and served as airplane captain for an F18 fighter squadron. As captain, it was his crucial job to oversee all aspects of the plane and certify it as mission ready.
Returning home, he became an entrepreneur and owner of his own construction firm, Casa Cardena and Associates. He calls Patriot Airpark the perfect blending of his interests and skills, and a development positioned to serve a growing market.
“We’ve done feasibility studies, and throughout the country, there’s a shortage of hangars,” he says. “In some places, there’s a waitlist of forty or fifty people per airport, waiting on airplane hangar space. Airplanes have to be stored; you can’t just drive a plane home from the airport. We’re offering the ability to own a home in a resort-style setting where you can park your airplane and have ready access to a runway. There’s a demand for that.”
Successful developers are, by nature and necessity, great marketers who must constantly sell their vision, be it to investors, city leaders, or prospective clients, so it is not unexpected to hear Alex gush about his development as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In the case of Patriot Airpark, however, it’s not mere hyperbole. After all, it is not every day that four hundred acres of cow pasture, which just happens to have the remnants of a private airstrip, including an airport building, becomes available.
Combine that with the announcement in March that Fort Smith’s Ebbing Air National Guard Base had been awarded a foreign military sales pilot training program, the Foreign Military Sales mission or FMS, and it is not hard to understand the excitement that rings through his voice.
“If this would’ve been located three hours in either direction, it wouldn’t have been possible,” he says. “It is very, very difficult to find big tracks of land, four hundred acres, let alone something that had a runway. When you add in the opportunity of the FMS program, with pilots from eighteen countries coming in to train, everything is going to be happening out here in force.”
Alex and his team have also drummed up additional exposure for the development through various events and partnerships. The largest of these lately has been as host for the Arkansas Short Take Off and Landing (STOL) competition, a qualifier for the national championship. Patriot is also home to Adventure Skydive Center, one of the many businesses the developer hopes to attract in the months to come. There’s even a tailor-made partnership with airplane manufacturer Patriot Aircraft.
“We partnered with Patriot Aircraft to bring in the National STOL event, and that’s been a marriage made in heaven,” Alex says. “They’re out of Bentonville, and they design each individual Patriot aircraft specifically for the buyer. They’re just gorgeous aircraft; they fly like a dream, and they’ve got all kinds of bells and whistles to them.
“So, you’ve got Patriot Airpark and Patriot Aircraft, and our logos look almost identical, and we’re building this aviation family that’s stretching out all across the country.”
The payoff for all this activity is about to be realized as the development begins to market lots upon which homes will be built. The project is targeting construction of up to two hundred fifty single-family residences, complete with an integrated airplane hangar, dubbed “barndominiums,” says Lorie Robertson, the project’s chief development and marketing officer.
“Everything will be centered around aviation, starting with the hangar homes,” she says. “The minimum square footage for these homes will be nineteen hundred square feet, and with the attached hangar, you’re probably looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of forty-five hundred to five thousand total square feet, on average.”
Lorie says that in addition to the hangar homes, the development will also offer some estate-size lots, ranging from two to five acres, which will allow people to build their dream residences. There are also plans to build fourteen duplexes on the property, two of which have already been sold. The merging of convenient access and on-premises amenities makes for an unbeatable combination, she says.
“What’s really beautiful is that we are located inside the town of Pocola, so we’ve got access to city utilities,” she says. “We’re also just adjacent to Fort Smith. It’s as easy to get to downtown Pocola as it is to get to downtown Fort Smith from the east side of the city.
“What people really react to when they come out here is, ‘Oh my goodness, this is gorgeous.’ We’ve spent a year building a lake in what was a flood zone on the property, and now we’ve got this beautiful, nearly thirteen-acre lake that is a centerpiece next to the airport runway. We’re also working on building some trails for hiking or mountain biking. The beauty of this piece of this property is so attractive.”
Long-range plans include the addition of at least one restaurant and working to attract or establish an educational program that trains future pilots and airplane mechanics, among other commercial tenants. Alex says this is yet another distinguishing factor that sets Patriot Airpark apart from other developments, in keeping with its aviation roots.
“I always wanted to be around aviation, you know, aviation’s been part of my life ever since I was a kid,” he says. “During my time in the construction business, I worked on several big projects in Florida, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. I’ve done a lot of things from building hotels and houses to every kind of commercial construction. This development is something that I have always wanted to build, something different, something I am passionate about. It’s unique, and it’s definitely something that I think will be impactful in the community.”
Patriot Airpark
800 Pryor Street, Pocola, OK
479.883.1169
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WORDS Dwain Hebda
IMAGES courtesy Patriot Airpark
