Heckendorf Ranches Airport

Economic reasons driven by urban expansion. The Heckendorf family sold the 122-acre parcel of land to real estate developers (a partnership between Hyde Development and Mortenson). The high value of the land, located strategically near Interstate 76 and E-470 on the outskirts of the growing Denver metropolitan area, made it significantly more profitable to redevelop for industrial and commercial use than to maintain as a private airstrip.

The site has been completely redeveloped into the '76 Commerce Center,' a large industrial park. The former runway and any associated airport structures have been entirely removed and replaced with several large warehouses, distribution centers, and commercial buildings occupied by various companies.

Heckendorf Ranches Airport was a private-use airfield established sometime between 1977 and 1981. It primarily served the agricultural and personal transportation needs of the Heckendorf family, who were prominent ranchers in the Brighton area. The airport consisted of a single, unpaved turf/dirt runway oriented NW/SE with a length of approximately 3,800 feet. Its significance was local, representing a classic example of a private farm strip, a type of facility that was once common across rural America but has increasingly disappeared due to land development pressure.

None. The prospect of reopening the airport is zero. The land has been permanently and extensively redeveloped with large-scale industrial infrastructure, making any return to aviation use impossible.