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Highlands Today

Construction Begins For New Avon Park Airport Terminal

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By DOUG CARMAN

Highlands Today

Published: August 29, 2008

AVON PARK - After several delays, the city's airport officially started construction for its new terminal building.

Airport Manager C.B. Shirey hoped the building would be the "capstone" needed to bring elusive business and air traffic to the Avon Park Executive Airport, which has been struggling to operate out of the red. He said the airport doesn't have a facility that would accommodate a pilot and flight crew flying a charter plane, so he expects the terminal to answer that shortcoming and get more businesses to fly there.

"They will start directing clients to that facility," Shirey said.

He said he is still looking for a car rental company to rent the one spare counter in the 5,000-square-foot terminal building before its opening. So far, he said a company recently asked about the space, but he declined to mention who that was.

The new terminal building will be on the State Road 64 side of the airport, near the main entrance. Two bulldozers were parked there Thursday afternoon during the groundbreaking ceremony. It's scheduled to be completed and opened January 2009.

This will be the only physical expansion of the airport for the near future. Other expansions were planned, including a storefront building along State Road 64 that would have hangar space in the back, but these were two to five years away from being approved.

The current economic conditions wouldn't make the expansions all that useful anyway, Shirey suggested.

"With the economic times we have right now, I don't expect a whole lot of interest in the next year and a half," he said.

While the terminal building's going up, the airport is working on a new Web site to boost itself and to advertise its hangars.

The city budgeted nearly $850,000 for the hangar and several improvements needed around the airport for the new building.

Doug Carman can be reached at 386-5838 or dcarman@highlandstoday.com

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