The Rhode Island Airport Corp. (RIAC) is looking for a developer to help renovate North Kingstown Quonset State Airport (OQU), formerly the Quonset Naval Air Station. The airport has 7,500- by 150-foot Runway 16/34, with an ILS on Runway 16 and VOR/DME and GPS approaches to Runway 34. There is also the crosswind Runway 5/23, which is 4,000- by 75 feet. The airport corporation hopes to attract a developer to demolish old buildings and construct a new terminal and corporate aircraft hangars.

Piedmont Hawthorne manages all five of Rhode Island’s general aviation airports under a contract with the RIAC, and would continue to operate the FBO and pump fuel at OQU. RIAC’s Dave Cloutier said, “Our goal is the same as the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation’s–to create jobs.” Located just five miles south of Providence T.F. Green International Airport (PVD), Quonset State is a busy business aviation base in the summer, but activity drops off drastically in the winter months, according to a spokesman for Hawthorne. With a new terminal and more corporate hangars, Piedmont hopes to raise the profile of the airport among corporate users year-round. It is adjacent to the site of a large industrial park that is still in the planning stages.