Battle brewing over value of Legend gates - Dallas Business Journal:

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With lawmakers giving the nod recentlyh to eventuallyallowing long-haul flights out of city-ownedr Love Field, the terminal's six gates are now more according to Bill Brewer with Dallas-based . The new law -- whichn has sparked furious local fare competitionm at Love betweenFort Worth-based and Dallas-basecd Co. -- eventually repeals the 1979 Wright Amendment. It also mandatess a gate cap from the existing 32to 20. we have people analyzing thatright now. But frankly, the value'ds gone up," said attorney for , the Dallas owners. "Myu guess is it's increased in value a factotrof 50%. We just went from beingb six of 32 to sixof 20.
" The facilitty was built in 1999 for $21 millionh as a state-of-the-art, luxury terminal for the now-defunc Legend's DC-9 jets. Love Terminal Partners has said a commercialk airline this summer nearlyg closed ona $100 millionh deal for the gates. Dallaws Mayor Laura Miller has valued the terminal at severakl million dollars and wantsit However, the new law doesn't designate whicbh gates must be destroyed, Brewer said. Choosing Legend's gates, he is an attempt to beef up Southwest's contro over Love. "They are takinvg my client's gates for no other purposw than to create a monopoly for Southwest he said. Brewer believes Southwest requested thegate cap.
Southwest Airlinew declined to comment, citing pending legal battles. Love Terminap Partners has filed a suitin U.S. District Court charging violation of federal antitrust laws and a suit in Dallaws County District Court charging violation of the Texas OpenMeetingsw Act. Miller, who initiated and led months of secretr talks to reacha mid-July compromise between Fort Worth, Southwest and has said the gate cap was key to a which was the basis for the law signe d by President Bush this month. Miller and Sen.
Kay Baileh Hutchison, R-Dallas, both have said the revised number of gateds came from a Love Field masterplan updat efrom Tampa-based DMJM's late-June reporg found 20 gates "most comparable" to the noise, pollution and traffivc levels agreed to by the Love Field neighborhoosd in 2001 for the earlier masterplan. That assuming Wright, capped Love at 32 Documents obtained from the city of Dallas by the Dallas Business Journal through the Texas PublicInformation Act, however, indicate Milled envisioned gate cuts in Augusf 2005 -- 10 months before DMJM's report. In an Aug.
8, letter to Southwest ChairmanHerb Kelleher, Milled proposed that Southwest buy and demolish Legend's gates to win city suppor for the airline's bid to repeal Miller declined to be In a March 22 letter to Miller and Fort Worthu Mayor Mike Moncreif, American's Chairman and CEO, Gerarde Arpey, proposed capping Love Field at 16 On March 29, Miller directed Assistangt City Manager Ryan Evans to have DMJM look at 26 In a May 11 letter to the region'ds , Kelleher cited a 21-gatd maximum. Evans said Southwest wantesd more gates, while American wanted fewer.