PORT TOWNSEND — The first airplane hangar construction project in three years has lifted off at Jefferson County International Airport.

More hangars are on the way, said Jim Pivarnik, deputy director of the Port of Port Townsend, which owns the airport.

The port built the infrastructure, paved taxiways and concrete pads for the hangar buildings in the spring and summer.

Eight pads have been built. Eventually, they will support up to 65 hangars on the airport’s northeast corner.

Six pads have been leased at a standard price of 48 cents per square foot, Pivarnik said.

“There is a lot of interest,” in the hangars, he said.

Twelve additional smaller nested T-hangars will be built in next 30 days, he said.

The 7,500-square-foot hangar now being erected is owned by Jefferson County residents Warren Erickson, Richard Grandy and Jim Piper.

They are building three large box hangars for three planes in the building, instead of the four hangars that could be designed for the structure.

The last complex of hangars were built on the west side of the airport.