Stellar Aviation Breaks Ground on Second 35,000-Sq-Ft Hangar at Reno-Tahoe International Airport
Why It MattersLarge-cabin hangar space at secondary hubs is becoming a core FBO growth lever, as operators pair terminal capacity with long-range storage and add adjacent mixed-use land development.
What happened
Stellar Aviation has broken ground on a 35,000-square-foot hangar and office complex at Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO), its second facility of that size on the airport's northeast quadrant. The announcement is dated October 20, 2026.
The new building is designed for the largest long-range business jets. It will provide 30,000 sq ft of hangar storage, 5,000 sq ft of office and shop space, and covered vehicle parking for tenants and crews. It joins an identical sister hangar beside Stellar's recently completed FBO executive terminal at Rock Boulevard and Mill Street.
Stellar now leases and manages 80 hangars at RNO, totaling more than 250,000 sq ft. Besides its main FBO, it operates two additional terminals on the field, which handle on-demand charter operators such as JSX, special events, and medical, government and military flights. About 30 miles south, its recently opened FBO at Carson City Airport (CXP) serves general aviation, military and state aviation department customers.
Stellar Aviation Chief Operating Officer Brad Kost said the company is committed to matching the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority's investment on the general aviation side, and that the hangar is meant to keep its FBO facilities in step with demand. The Authority has more than $1 billion in infrastructure improvements under construction.
Stellar's Reno-Tahoe investment to date includes more than 9 acres of FBO development with a 5,000-sq-ft executive terminal and the first 35,000-sq-ft hangar and office complex, 4 acres of secured aircraft parking, and more than 60,000 gallons of bulk fuel storage in a new fuel farm.
The next project on the northeast side
Stellar Land Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stellar Aviation, is designing and permitting a further 100,000-sq-ft mixed-use general aviation project on the northeast side of RNO, just down the street from the hangar now under construction.
Groundbreaking for that project is scheduled for the first quarter of 2027.
Industry impact & what to watch
Hangar capacity sized for the largest long-range business jets is a different product from ramp and terminal service. It ties an aircraft to a base airport for months at a time, producing recurring lease revenue and a steadier fuel and handling relationship than transient traffic does. Building a second identical 35,000-sq-ft structure beside the first suggests that Stellar is treating large-cabin storage as a repeatable unit it can add as demand appears.
The pairing of an FBO operator with an affiliated land-development arm is a recognizable way for a general aviation business to grow at a single airport. The FBO supplies the operating relationship and the tenants; the land company designs and permits further buildings on adjacent parcels. At RNO, the 100,000-sq-ft mixed-use project illustrates that division of labor, and it sits alongside an airport-wide infrastructure program that Stellar explicitly frames as the benchmark it intends to match.
The dated milestone to follow is the first-quarter 2027 groundbreaking of the mixed-use project, which will show how quickly the northeast side moves from hangar construction to broader development.
