A new administration building and an aviation-focused business park both have the potential to generate future business opportunities at Wittman Regional Airport.
Several community partners continue to develop the infrastructure and marketing plans for an 80-acre aviation business park and business accelerator program at the southeast corner of the airport.
Elizabeth Hartman, CEO of Chamco Inc., Oshkosh's industrial development arm, said the project will help expand business opportunities on the airport grounds at a time when the city and Winnebago County have less than 10 acres of development-ready land, much of it non-contiguous, at the airport.
"We really want to put Oshkosh on the map as a place for aviation innovation and as the place to be for aviation businesses," Hartman said.
Several organizations continue to work on behind-the-scenes elements of the project. The city continues to work on extending utilities and infrastructure to the area while Chamco continues to work with consultants hired to conduct marketing and cluster studies that will help give future business recruitment efforts some focus.
Hartman said the business accelerator program would feature general classes for all entrepreneurs as well as ones specifically focused on aviation businesses. She said the accelerator aims to help build entrepreneurial ideas and prepare them for the marketplace.
"By the time you finish, you'll have your product, know that customers will want to buy it and be ready to make your pitch to investors," she said.
At the same time, Winnebago County is considering a project that could open up more development opportunities on the grounds.
Wittman Regional Airport Director Peter Moll said the county is weighing options to demolish the aging, largely unused terminal building and replace it with a smaller administration building. He said the list of repairs at the existing building has grown long and costly while much of the space has gone unused since commercial air service ended in March 2003.
"We're still trying to refine the floor plan and location, but we're still moving forward," Moll said. "There's good support from the (county's) Aviation Committee and from tenants who have offered a lot of solid input on the project."
Moll said the latest plan calls for a smaller building with space for airport administrative offices, Hertz Car Rental and Basler Flight Services, the sole fixed-base operator, or FBO, at Wittman after it purchased Orion Flight Services in early 2014.
"It really makes sense because we no longer have to be worried about FAA concerns that we'd be favoring one FBO over the other," Moll said. "Plus, this consolidation would potentially open up more land for redevelopment in the future."
Wittman Airport owns four of the buildings Basler occupies on the north side of the airport grounds. Moll said consolidating their operations into an administration building could give the airport more opportunities to bring in other businesses to that area of the airport.
Source: http://www.thenorthwestern.com
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