AP Airport's Building Slated For Completion

AVON PARK - Groundbreaking for Avon Park Executive Airport's new terminal building should begin within 30 days.

Airport Manager C.B. Shirey said that he was hoping it would be completed by Sept. 30, the end of the city's fiscal year. The building will be the first of several additions to the airport in the city's efforts to make it economically "self-sustaining."

The city already has $848,750 budgeted for the building and all the improvements needed for it, including the already-completed design, permitting, engineering, landscaping and parking lot upgrades.
"Right now, all we have left to do is to drop the building into the space," Shirey said.

According to the floor plans for the 5,000 square-foot brick stucco building, it will include office space for the airport's fixed base operator, which is currently using a portable.

Shirey pointed out that several car rental companies are considering one of the terminal building offices. He did not name any of the companies, but he expected one of them to move into the building shortly after it's completed.

Before Shirey became the airport's manager, the Airport Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board wanted to improve the airport's marketing to draw more business tenants. Calls to John Barben, the chairman of the Airport CRA, were not returned Thursday.

Shirey said the new terminal building will be the airport's "keystone" for that goal.

When asked how long it would take for the airport to become self-sustaining, Shirey said "I really don't have a good idea on that."

"I think it will be in the near future rather than the distant," he said. "It's kind of like (asking) 'when are we going to get out of Iraq' and to set a deadline."

Currently, Avon Park Executive Airport experiences approximately 31,000 "operations" a year, which include take-offs and landings. There are four vacancies among the airport's 58 T-hangars, and the airport bases 61 aircraft altogether.

After this building's completed, Shirey said the airport will work on a long-term master plan, and next year it will begin work on a $30,000 security upgrade. It might also split the airport's available land into parcels that would be put up for lease.

"That way, the airport gets out of the construction and building business and that will save us money," he said.