Commission OKs Settlement, Lease With Company at Van Nuys Airport

The Los Angeles Airport Commission on Monday approved a legal settlement with a company that restores and refurbishes private aircraft at Van Nuys Airport, ending five years of litigation and more than a decade of negotiations.

The agreement, approved on a 4-1 vote, provides Syncro Aircraft Interiors with a 30-month lease, with an option to extend for 30 more months.

In exchange, the company agreed to pay $309,724 a year in rent. Under the settlement, both the city and Syncro agreed to dismiss claims against each other. The City Council must sign off on the deal.

“Settling this litigation now will put to an end the long and costly process that both parties have endured,” a commission staff report stated. “Finally, both parties are relieved from the prospect of potentially sizable adverse monetary awards rendered against either party that might result from a jury trial.”

Syncro has been struggling since 1993 to obtain a long-term lease at the airport. The city tried to evict the firm in the late 1990s, saying that it needed the site for other uses and that Syncro conducted unauthorized activities on its leasehold.

Under the settlement, the firm, which has operated at Van Nuys Airport since 1990, agrees to leave after five years. Until then, the firm will lease four acres, 32,000 square feet of hangar space and 61,242 square feet of office space at the airport.

Syncro President Barbara Cesar told commissioners on Monday: “This has been a very long, hard and difficult road.”