Saturday, November 07, 2015

New terminal at the Asheboro Regional Airport (KHBI): Good idea?



Editor’s Note: Today’s Focus looks at a proposal to build a new terminal at the Asheboro airport. What is the current economic impact of the airport west of town — and what is the economic potential. On Tuesday: What’s happening at other general aviation airports in North Carolina — small airports like the one in Asheboro?


ASHEBORO — The 40-plus-year-old terminal at the Asheboro Regional Airport is outdated.

Everyone, it seems, agrees that the single-story brick facility built in 1972 is in need of an upgrade.

But not everyone is ready to endorse a $7.5 million proposal unveiled last month to replace the current terminal with a building of glass, block and stone designed to look like an airplane wing from the air.

The proposed two-story, 22,739-square-foot facility would offer improved amenities for pilots, as well as meeting rooms, a cafe open to the public and several thousand square feet of rental space.

The state completed an economic impact survey of North Carolina’s airports in 2012 and set the annual economic contribution of Asheboro’s airport — as it is — at $5.9 million.

Currently, the tax value of airplanes hangared at the Asheboro airport is almost $5.2 million, which contributes to city and county coffers the tax equivalent of about 42 homes worth $121,000. Proponents say with improved facilities, the number of planes that call the Asheboro airport home could double in a decade

The question is: Would the proposed multimillion dollar upgrade provide a return on investment — an economic boost — sufficient to justify such an expenditure?

The answer has yet to be determined.

First steps first

“We see the Asheboro Regional Airport as a viable economic engine,” Asheboro Mayor David Smith said this week, “and it’s an asset that we have to keep up, just like the streets and other assets the city manages. The terminal building is woefully inadequate. It’s time to do something.”

What that something is remains to be determined.

Smith said he does not have a timeline for the city council to discuss airport improvements.

“The bottom line — the largest project begins with a single step,” he said. “The finished project may or may not resemble what our first concept drawings showed us.”

Randolph County Manager Hal Johnson agreed.

Johnson said a terminal upgrade would make Asheboro and Randolph County more attractive to corporate jets and a better tool for recruitment efforts.

“It can have some major impact over time in economic development,” he said. “If we make Asheboro a better destination for these corporate jets and the private jets, too, it can’t have anything but a positive impact on our economy.”

He added that he does not expect county commissioners to even discuss upgrades at the airport until early spring.

“They’ve not formally processed that and looked at it in a public meeting and begun to look at options and they certainly haven’t made any decisions,” Johnson said. “The (annual) planning retreat in March is usually the time county commissioners identify projects they wish to pursue. There’s a lot more study that will have to go into this project.”

Johnson agreed that there is a parallel of sorts between funding an airport terminal and the expenditure of tax dollars to pay for part of the renovation and upgrade of the historic Sunset Theatre in downtown Asheboro.

That project represents public support from the city and private fund-raising support for a project that impacts the face of the community — and the local economy.

“Now people can’t imagine downtown Asheboro,” he said, “without the Sunset Theatre in its renovated stage.”

They will come

The terminal proposal was unveiled last month at a joint meeting of tthe Asheboro City Council, the Randolph County Commissioners and the Asheboro Airport Authority.

At the special meeting, Bob Crumley, a pilot and a representative of the Asheboro Airport Authority, riffed on the 1989 film “Field of Dreams” in which a man builds a baseball field in a rural cornfield based on the phrase “If you build it, he will come.”

“It’s sort of like, if you build it, they will come,” Crumley said.

In a figure that surprises some people, the Asheboro airport sees more than 125 flights per week.

Tammy O’Kelley, executive director of the Randolph County Tourism Development Authority, said that number surprised her when she heard it.

“I think the project could have a significant impact because the airport already has a much more significant impact than I ever realized,” she said. “That airport is a bright spot. To me, anything that improves the airport and makes it more business friendly for those who want to use it would make it better.”

Crumley said the number of planes coming and going could grow dramatically with construction of the terminal proposed.

“We wanted to build something that was unique,” he said. “It will have pilots flying from all over the East Coast and saying ‘You’ve got to go see this airport.’ ”

Traffic to airports the size of the Asheboro airport will increase significantly in coming years as congestion increases at commercial airports, such as those in Charlotte and Greensboro. A new-and-improved terminal in Asheboro, Crumley said, would position the airport to grab its share of that traffic.

But that’s not all.

Tax dollars, economic development

Proponents say a new terminal would boost economic development efforts.

They add that the airport would see even more growth if a megasite is developed in the northeastern sector of the county.

“An airport is a gateway into a community,” Crumley said.

Bonnie Renfro, the president of the Randolph County Economic Development Corp., said the most common aviation-related question her organization fields asks about proximity to commercial airports such as those in Greensboro, Charlotte and Raleigh.

“One of the advantages we’ve had in the county is really access to three international airports,” she said.

But Renfro noted that a local airport upgrade with added features, including meeting space, would be a plus.

“The Asheboro airport is one of our assets — it’s part of our transportation infrastructure, which is critical for business location and success,” she said. “… As far as the ability to directly impact recruitment of companies, I think it would be important to have an airport where folks could fly in and, if they wish, to hold a meeting. It would be very positive.”

Crumley also said there’s plenty of room for development of the North Carolina Aviation Museum and the North Carolina Aviation Hall of Fame at the airport.

O’Kelley agreed. She said there is merit to an idea that the museum board, the airport authority and her tourism organization could join hands to operate the museum and hall of fame.

“There’s probably a lot we could do for the aviation museum and I think it could be successful,” she said, “but that would be a decision for our board.”

According to Kelley, records show a steady decline in the number of visitors to the museum, from 7,750 in 2009 to 2,868 in 2013. She sees that as a trend that could be reversed.

As an example of possibilities, she noted numbers from Millstone Creek Orchards, a seasonal operation east of Ramseur. The orchard hosted 10,000 visitors in 2009 — and 28,000 last year.

Marketing and advertising could change that trend.

“It really is a special place and is one of those opportunities that could be developed for additional events and additional visitors,” Renfro said.

Past, present, future

The airport on Pilots View Road, off N.C. 49 west of town, was established in its present location in the mid-1960s.

Through a series of expansions since then, the tarmac has grown from a 3,000-foot runway to more than a mile long. The facility has a full-length taxiway. Large commercial airliners cannot land at the Asheboro airport, but business jets (and some commuter jets) can.

The city owns the airport, but does not run it. For many years, Asheboro has contracted with Cardinal Air to handle airport management.

The city does not pay Cardinal Air, but does pay certain costs of the operation. When fuel sales at the airport top $150,000 in a year, according to the contract, the city receives 5 percent of the revenues. Recent gasoline sales do not reach that threshold. Before the recession hit in 2008, sales averaged 130,000 gallons per year; since then sales have fallen off to around 50,000 gallons per year.

The airport serves local businesses with aviation services that they otherwise would have to go to Winston-Salem or Greensboro to get.

The city does not build the hangars at the airport, but prepares sites for hangars. “We lease the hangar out to the person that builds the site,” said City Engineer Michael Leonard. There are several sites ready for hangars, Leonard said.

In the current fiscal year, the city budget allocates $97,050 to the airport. Last year, the airport appropriation was $62,450. This year’s appropriation is higher than most years because a one-time expense of $36,000 is included to fund an HVAC upgrade to the current terminal.

If a new terminal is built, the old one would not be torn down. Plans call for using it as a base for flight instruction.

“If we end up using that for a flight training center, it’s going to need HVAC and an upgrade to the restrooms as well,” Leonard said.

Also included in the budget is $27,000 for utilities, lights and fuel and $5,000 for maintenance; another $16,700 is the required match for the $150,000 the city receives from the FAA through the N.C. Division of Aviation.

A certain amount of land around the airport is not available for development — it must be kept open as a buffer for planes coming and going. But the city owns several parcels on the airport perimeter, close to 100 acres, including road frontage on Pilots View Road and Tot Hill Farm Road, that would be suitable for a business or industry wishing to be close to the facility.

Leonard noted that there are hundreds of acres of private land west of the airport that potentially offer more room for future development.

There’s no doubt in Leonard’s mind that the terminal needs a significant upgrade — or needs to be replaced.

“It has definitely aged out,” he said.

He characterized the difference a new terminal would make to someone using it.

“It’s like the difference between stopping at a nice Sheetz when you’re on vacation or an old run-down truck stop.”

The price tag

Anticipated grants for the proposed terminal total about $1.1 million. Even factoring in half a million dollars from the state and half a million from private fund-raising, the lion’s share of the tab for a $7.5 million terminal would fall to the city and the county.

Local officials say there is a long way to go.

Smith contends that a new terminal would be a proper expenditure of public monies. He said taxpayers who say they do not use the airport so they do not want to see their tax dollars used for the airport are akin to those who say they do not have a child in school so they do not want to help fund schools.

That is not to say he would give a green light to the project just now.

“I am a little concerned about the price tag,” he said.

Again, Johnson agreed.

“There’s always cutbacks in projects to make them fit into budgets,” Johnson said. “You may have something that is the optimum use of the facility, but you have to reduce it based on the amount of money you’ve got to spend.”

Government officials will be looking long and hard for other sources of funding, Smith said.

“It was a very preliminary proposal presented and we would not entertain any projects out there without assistance and other participation,” he said. “It’s not going to be $7.5 million of our taxpayers’ money.”

- See more at: http://courier-tribune.com

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