Prior to Tuesday’s ribbon cutting, a crowd casts shadows over the schematic drawing of the recently unveiled 30,000-square-foot hangar building at the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport in North Bend. The Coos County Airport District will now ramp up efforts to find a paying customer, or customers, to utilize the structure.
By Tim Novotny, The World
NORTH BEND — When dignitaries gathered at Southwest Oregon Regional Airport on Tuesday night, the only thing missing was the shades. Because, for those involved in the latest upgrades, the future hasn’t looked this bright in quite a while.
The airport makeover included a 30,000-square-foot hangar, an additional 85,000 square feet of space in front of the hangar, and office space.
The project, which originally included the demolition of the old World War II-era hangar that sat on the same site, included a grant of more than $2 million from Connect Oregon.
But, Murphy’s Law being what it is, the project ended up getting delayed after the old hangar caught fire during its demolition in December of 2012. The blaze caused some breaks in construction as insurance payments needed to be sorted out among a number of companies.
So, the prevailing emotions this week were relief and optimism.
“I think that is kind of our attitude,” said Helen Brunell Mineau, one of the Coos County Airport District commissioners. She explained that the relief is from the project being finished, but they now have a great opportunity lying before them to help benefit the local economy.
“It’s $2.2 million worth of an investment,” she said, referring to the grant funding. “We are now celebrating the fact that we have a brand new hangar that you could put a 737 in. We are kind of excited about that, the possibilities of somebody locating a plane here, leaving it here, having it based here, would be fabulous. It would be a boost to our economy. And we see that as a continuation of all the things we’ve worked on here at the airport for: economic development, improve the economy and continue to have service at the airport.”
The hangar is actually not only designed to suit a Boeing business jet, similar in size to a 737, but it could also hold four other smaller jets, or any similarly sized variation of airplanes.
Airport Executive Director Theresa Cook said earlier this year that the concept was to be able to attract the larger commercial aircraft for overnight stays. Adding that the building could also end up housing a group that manages the hangar for owners of corporate jets, an air ambulance company, or some other form of corporate entity.
Making it happen
The project required a team effort to make it happen, but U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, who was on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony, was basically the straw that stirred the drink.
“It really does take everybody to make it work, and DeFazio’s office has repeatedly backed any rural air service grants,” Brunell Mineau said. “He’s been very helpful in getting those. For years we still had weather observers still based here that were paid for by the federal government that nobody else in the country had, and that was because of Peter DeFazio doing his job and backing us and making sure we got the job done.”
The congressman said he has repeatedly gone to bat for the airport because he understands that the benefits to the South Coast can lead to benefits throughout the state.
“Look, we don’t do well as a state if all the economic growth is in Portland, or Portland and Eugene and somewhere else. We need to support robust economic growth everywhere in this state,” DeFazio said Tuesday. “The South Coast has been waiting for a long time and I think we are on the cusp of big things. Having an airport for both the commercial and the GA (general aviation) access is really critical to either economic development as it relates to tourism, or as it relates to recruiting companies to come in here. Because they are going to want to fly their execs, or teams, in and out and this is key.”
State Sen. Arnie Roblan sees the same enticing possibilities with the new hangar, and other airport improvements, taking flight.
“We know that, because we are out here on the coast, we’ve got to have roads, and we’ve got to have the rail, and we have to have an airport,” Roblan said. “It is that combination of things that continues to make us believe that the potential is there to do some other things in this area and bring back family wage jobs. It’s just one more thing that shows the rest of the world that we are ready for business.”
Time is right
Russ Batzer, of Batzer Construction, says it seems to be a case of perfect timing for the airport. As money from outside of the state is looking to keep a variety of jets in Oregon, where the aviation environment is more financially friendly, spaces are starting to get snapped up.
“All over the state of Oregon hangars are being built,” he said. “This has been the biggest year for our company. (As for this project) everything went as planned. It’s a pretty cool building.”
Not to be lost in the hoopla, another pretty cool building was being shown off Tuesday.
The celebration actually began with Dale Sause, of Coos Aviation, unveiling his company’s new building, located inside the old North Bend Airport terminal.
Architect Rich Turi says the trick with that project was figuring out how to divide up the much larger space in the company’s new, old, building.
“So you create a space that was still cozy, didn’t seem vast and way too big, and I think it turned out just right,” he said. “It feels warm and cozy. I’m pleased and my client, Dale Sause, he’s pleased.”
Soon, the hope is that the whole community will be universally pleased with the reimagined look of the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport, and that it will also look better to potential future business interests that may be transiting in and out of the community already.
“Our hope is that if just a couple of those major executives, who come (for Bandon Dunes) and fly in, decide maybe we should move our company here, it could make a big difference for our community,” added Roblan.
DeFazio said a brighter future has to start with optimal transportation links.
“Absolutely, that’s the bottom line,” he concluded. “In an area like the coast of Oregon, great transportation links are everything. Whether it is good highway, and we’ve improved the highways dramatically over to the valley side over the years, or its aviation or rail or the port itself. We need everything and it needs to be in good working order and then they will come. We will have the recruitment that we want, we will have the economic development that we want.”
- Source: http://theworldlink.com
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