Jet service en route to Lakeland Linder with Keys to the World

Editor's note: One of the references to Keys to the World in this story was originally published incorrectly. This article has been updated.

LAKELAND — Lakeland will get Keys to the World in August.

That would be Keys to the World Aviation, a start-up corporate aircraft service that broke ground on its new $9 million headquarters Wednesday at Lakeland Linder International Airport. The groundbreaking attracted dozens of local business and public officials.

The 59,000-square-foot facility will include a hangar for six corporate jet aircraft, a maintenance facility, space for the Keys corporate office plus space for four other companies basing their aircraft there, a video conference room and a luxury passenger waiting room, said Tony Sparks, owner of Phantom Air Services, a Fort Lauderdale company that will manage the facility for its owner, Damien Lamendola.

The hangar can accommodate six Gulfstream G650s, a top-of-the-line corporate jet, Sparks said. The 19-passenger aircraft sells for about $50 million.

Construction will begin shortly, and Keys to the World is scheduled to open for business on Aug. 15, he said.

The new company will create about 20 new jobs at annual salaries beginning at $100,000, including benefits, Lamendola told The Ledger at the groundbreaking.

It currently employs nine people, Sparks said.

“We need a business like this because of companies with larger aircraft that want to be based here in Lakeland,” said Gene Conrad, director of the municipal airport. “I get approached all the time by private aircraft owners and companies. We can’t accommodate them because we’re at 100 percent capacity.”

The Keys to the World project is the largest private development at the airport “in decades,” Conrad said.

The only larger development was the $19 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aircraft Operations Center for its Hurricane Hunters fleet, he added. The city built the 106,000-square-foot facility, which includes a 58,000-square-foot hangar, for the federal government’s weather agency.

The success of both facilities could act as a magnet for more aviation organizations in the future, Conrad said.

“At the end of the day, activity breeds activity,” he said.

Steve Scruggs, executive director of the Lakeland Economic Development Council, agreed.

“This is a major project for our airport and our community,” Scruggs said. “These are the types of projects the helps us attract high-skill, high-wage employment to Lakeland.”

Keys to the World will also be good for the Polk County economy and development, said Sean Malott, president and CEO of the Central Florida Development Council.

“Aviation has really taken off in Polk County,” Malott said. “This is exactly the type of project we want to see be successful. The central location and proximity to an abundant workforce are important factors to help aviation and aerospace companies choose Lakeland and Polk. This is only the start of what we will see happening within the aviation and aerospace sector in the coming years.”

Lamendola is a familiar name to the local business community. He founded WellDyneRX Inc., a pharmacy benefit manager, in Denver and moved it to Lakeland in 2010.

Subsequently, Lamendola became an investor and active member in the Lakeland Development Council, Scruggs said.

Lamendola sold WellDyneRX to The Carlyle Group, a private equity company, in 2016 for a reported $1 billion.

There’s a direct line between the WellDyne sale and Keys to the World, Lamendola said.

“I didn’t buy a plane until after I sold WellDyne,” he said. “I never considered an aviation business until then. I needed a place to put my planes.”

Lamendola purchased a Gulfstream G450, a smaller cousin of the G650 that sells for $20 million, in August 2016 shortly after the WellDyne sale closed, Sparks said. The G450 is also a popular corporate aircraft.

Six months later, Lamendola purchased a second G450.

“He became so interested and intrigued in aviation as a business, he bought the second jet,” Sparks said.

Both of Lamendola’s G450s will be based at Keys to the World and offered for domestic and international charter flights, he said. The company can fly to destinations across North and South America, Europe and Asia.

Keys to the World has already signed up one Fortune 500 company to a lease agreement for its corporate jet base, said Sparks, who declined to identify the company. Keys is marketing the facility to other corporate tenants.

The company eventually hopes to purchase additional jets for charter flights, he added, and sometime after opening it plans to start a “helicopter limousine service” that would fly aircraft owners and charter customers to Lakeland Linder.

“I call it my Uber helicopter concept,” Sparks said.

Lamendola’s 10-year business plan for Keys calls for earning revenues of $2 million to $3 million in the first year on charter flights and base leasing, he and Sparks said. At the end of the period, it hopes to increase revenues tenfold.

Keys to the World aims to distinguish itself from competitors by providing a charter concierge service, which includes full security for corporate executives, said Sparks, a U.S. Army aviation veteran who provided a similar service to the U.S. State Department’s fleet of more than 140 aircraft based at Patrick Air Force Base in Melbourne.

Sparks, 55, has 35 years of experience in the aviation industry in government and as a private contractor.

The U.S. Customs office at Lakeland Linder was a key reason for locating there, Lamendola and Sparks said.

“It’s huge,” Lamendola told guests at the groundbreaking. “It makes all the difference in the world for anybody planning to fly internationally. You can clear Customs in 15 minutes.”

Other factors included the “three P’s — people, place and Polytechnic,” he added, referring to Florida Polytechnic University, a source of technically skilled employees.

Lamendola also praised the first P, including Conrad and the staff at Lakeland Linder.

“The airport has been fantastic to work with,” he said. “It’s absolutely the best place in Florida to build this kind of operation.”

The second P refers both to Lakeland’s central location in Florida, which offers several advantages, Lamendola and Sparks said. It beat out four other Florida cities.

The Lakeland airport is away from the coasts, where salt in the atmosphere wears on aircraft, particularly the electronics, they said. Lakeland Linder is also easy to drive to and has less air traffic than Tampa and Orlando with its international airports.

His business experience in Lakeland also played a role in choosing a headquarters for his first aviation company, Lamendola said. HillCour Holding Corp., the parent company of Keys to the World and about 20 other Lamendola companies, has offices in Lakeland.

“Lakeland has always been very good to us,” he said. “I’m excited to be here.”

Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-802-7591.