W
hen you’re looking to sell a prime aircraft that hovers in the $2 million range, you don’t exactly post the engineering marvel on Craig’s List like an old Dodge Dart. Such an extraordinary transaction requires expertise, the kind most reliably located through rock-solid referrals. That’s how Kahala Corp. founder and CEO Kevin Blackwell selected Scottsdale Airpark’s Pinnacle Aviation to find a buyer for his company’s Pilatus PC-12 this fall. The turbo-prop had proved itself a workhorse for short to medium-sized runs, but Scottsdale-based Kahala—which now owns more than a dozen brands, from Cold Stone Creamery to Samurai Sam’s—would increasingly need the global traveling chops of its monster corporate jet, the Citation Sovereign. “When I told my pilots I was thinking of selling the Pilatus, they said, ‘This is the man you should use,’” says
Blackwell. “He came highly endorsed by two guys that I obviously trust with my life.” The man in question is Curt Pavlicek, president and CEO of Pinnacle Aviation, specializing in charter, sales and acquisitions, management, maintenance and insurance. The five companies operating under the Pinnacle umbrella are based out at Southwest Jet Center on the east side of Scottsdale Municipal Airport, a private FBO facility where Blackwell houses his Sovereign and Pinnacle leases its own hangar as well as a suite of executive and maintenance offices. Blackwell’s instincts about the referral paid off. Pavlicek negotiated the Pilatus sale seamlessly and at “the exact price we were looking for,” says Blackwell. “I was just very impressed. If I go on the market to look for another plane, he would be the man I would go to.” No surprise, really. Even if you didn’t know Pavlicek’s background, there’s
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