Ocean Aviation Starts $67M Miami Executive Airport Campus

Ocean Aviation, backed by Kennedy Lewis Investment Management, has broken ground on a roughly $67 million private aviation campus at Miami Executive Airport in Kendall, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The company says the site will hold a premium fixed-base operator (FBO) terminal, a fuel farm and up to 400,000 square feet of communal and private hangars.

Why it matters

Miami-Dade owns the land, so this is a developer building on public ground under a long lease. Ocean Aviation also bought National Jets at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International in September, according to Pulse 2.0, which makes Miami Executive the second half of a two-airport South Florida network. Private aviation capacity in the market is getting built, not just discussed. See more in our South Florida coverage.

The numbers

The Business Journal reported a 40-year lease with a single five-year renewal option. Rent is reviewed annually by an independent appraiser and raised “if appropriate,” the outlet said, a term we have not independently confirmed in the lease itself.

A July 2024 county memo we pulled, agenda item 14(A)(7), proposed a 40-year development lease with Ocean Aviation TMB, LLC covering about 39.1 acres. It set a minimum investment of $67.2 million. Press reports describe the site as 40 acres, so the final executed acreage should be checked against the signed lease.

The project also includes a 32,000-square-foot common-use taxi lane and ramp serving U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and a new home for the Wings Over Miami Air Museum. Lemartec leads design-build, with Schenkel Shultz as design partner, per Pulse 2.0.

What’s next

The county memo described a phased build-out, so the FBO terminal, fuel farm and hangars will not all open at once. We have not seen a delivery schedule. Watch for building permits from Miami-Dade and for the signed lease with the Aviation Department, which would confirm acreage and rent terms. Reports differ on the exact groundbreaking date, so treat early October as approximate.