http://www.news-press.com/article/20100309/NEWS01/100308060/1002/Page-Field-upgrade-is-booked-
Mar-9 by Laura Ruane
Cleared for takeoff: A long-planned new passenger terminal for Page Field General Aviation Airport in Fort Myers.
Lee County commissioners Monday OK’d a $16.1 million construction budget for the complex in the airport’s northwestern quadrant.
It will include a 22,613-square-foot passenger terminal, a 24,000-square-foot multi-use hangar, a fuel farm, a parking lot and an entrance road off Fowler Street.
Lee County Port Authority staffers say groundbreaking could occur later this month or early April, with the complex scheduled to open in summer 2011.
Charter pilot and aviation writer Mark Twombly of Sanibel said the times are right for a bigger facility.
“Right now, they’ve got a little terminal, and the ramp (where aircraft park) is packed,” Twombly said, adding: “Like any airport improvement, it attracts more people here. These people do business here — or at least spend money here.”
Port Authority chief Bob Ball calls Page Field an “economic engine.” A state Department of Transportation report released this month estimates Page’s total economic impact as topping $94.5 million a year.
The most recent study the port authority commissioned from Riccondo & Associates in 2005 credits the airport with $50.7 million in annual economic impact in the region.
The Riccondo study also noted airport tenants provide more than 230 jobs, and business generated by general aviation visitors create 350 jobs, and an additional 340 jobs in the community are supported by airport operations.
Owen-Ames-Kimball is project general contractor and construction manager.
Just the latest
The commissioners’ decision Monday is the latest step in several years of planning for Page expansion. Airside components, including taxiways and aircraft parking, already are done, paid mainly through federal and state grants.
Money for landside buildings including the new terminal will come from state transportation grants and port authority revenues gained through rents and fees charged to airport users. No property tax dollars are used for port authority operations or construction projects.
Also included in Monday’s decision: An airport staff-recommended option to put solar panels on the new hangar roof, which is expected to generate about 28 percent of the terminal’s power requirements.
“I applaud this port authority and the staff for trying to break the cycle of reliance on fossil fuel,” said Commissioner Ray Judah.
Fellow commissioners expressed concern about the solar project’s $1.6 million cost allowance, and the estimated 22-year-payback period.
Lee County Port Authority chief Bob Ball said he thinks the project actually will cost less than $1.6 million, and that “the time before a return on our investment could be considerably reduced” if the port authority qualifies for possible federal credits or grants for energy-saving improvements. He promised to keep commissioners updated on reducing the solar installation costs.
1940s redux
The new terminal will have a more prominent location (near the back entrance to Page Field Commons shopping plaza) and be about five times the size of the existing aviation center on the airport’s south side, off Danley Drive.
Designers have proposed a retro-1940s look, with a curved center roofline resembling a Quonset hut. That’s a visual salute to the airfield’s past as an Army Air Corps training center in World War II.
One interior design concept shows a scaled-down model of a fighter plane suspended in a two-story open-to-the-ceiling lobby.
Also in the floor plan are a pilots’ lounge, a car rental center, a gift shop, a food vending area and administrative offices.
Since Southwest Florida International opened in 1983, Page Field has been a reliever airport, catering to noncommercial aviation. It handled 77,765 aircraft take-offs and landings last year, up 6.7 percent over 2008.
Its status as a reliever airport can’t be underestimated, said Victoria Moreland, port authority spokeswoman. Southwest Florida International handled more than 83,000 takeoffs and landings last year: If there were no Page Field, the international airport’s single runway couldn’t handle the nearly double traffic.
More importantly, adding smaller aircraft would require greater spacing of aircraft on taxiways and the runway, “which would gridlock (the international airport),” Moreland said.
Throughout the year, more than 300 aircraft, including private corporate jets, turboprops, twins, singles and helicopters make Page Field their home.
Business center
Page Field has more than 20 tenants, including Southern Machine & Steel, Schwab Ready Mix and Raymond Building Supply. Also based there are several aviation service businesses, flying clubs, state law enforcement agencies and Lee County Emergency Medical Services. That count doesn’t include retail shops at the Page Field Commons power center, built on land leased out by the port authority.
Ron Focht, president of Fort Myers-based Woods Metal Works, rents a hangar at page for two twin-engine aircraft. He’s a licensed private pilot, and uses the planes for occasional trips to a company branch operation in Auburn, Ala., and to a farming operation in Ohio.
For local companies doing business out of state, having a general aviation terminal that’s friendly to both corporate jet and light aircraft traffic is important, Focht said.
“It takes at least six hours to drive out of state,” Focht said. “By flying, a person can do business out of state, and come back the same day.”
