Oh, those friendlier skies

By Dick Hughes  

OCTOBER 20, 2011 10:00 a.m. (0)

After years of neglect and mismanagement, Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport is poised, its backers believe, to restore the city to its historic place as a premier general aviation center.

The city has finished a $4.5-million renovation and expansion of its depression-era terminal, added 16 small hangers, a new parking lot, ground improvements and a plaza at runway level, the latter to be privately funded.

It will begin work in a week or so on $3.5 million in tarmac and runway improvements and soon move into the environmental and engineering phases to extend the runway by 500 feet to 5,700 feet and add to the runway safety area.

The city acquired 25 acres for that expansion that is expected to take three years to complete.

A grand opening of the new terminal will be held in mid-November, said Darwin Simpson, 68, a retired chemical company executive and brigadier general who took on supervision three years ago for a dollar a year.

State’s First in Flight

Simpson said the airport improvements are about business by “revitalizing Spartanburg’s link to the business world,” but it is also about restoring Spartanburg’s heritage as a leader in aviation.

“This city years ago was the pioneer, and they just let it go. They had bad management,” said Simpson.

Spartanburg’s storied past includes being South Carolina’s stop for Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis 48-state tour, a distinction the city won because Lindbergh had no other choice. Spartanburg had the state’s only airfield, which opened in June 1927.

Four months later on Oct. 12, Lindbergh set down at the airfield in what Simpson called the biggest event in the history of Spartanburg. The city was out en masse, and Lindbergh led a parade and celebration into the city.

Scattered throughout the new terminal are black and white photos of that event, as well as many others telling of historic events, such as Amelia Earhart’s visit and as a key mail stop for Pitcairn Aircraft Corp.’s pioneering airmail service. Pitcairn eventually became Eastern Airlines.

As another nod to history, Simpson insisted on a modern clock on the face of the terminal to replicate the one that for many years was the city’s time piece but turned useless as its exposed wooden arms deteriorated.

Heritage was a significant factor in rebuilding the old terminal, itself rich in history as a 1935 WPA project designated as a memorial to Spartanburg’s fallen in World War I, said City Manager Ed Memmott.

“Spartanburg was a leader in aviation development … and this helps recognize that, and that was certainly an advantage to this path to renovate and expand the old terminal as opposed to building a new one,” he said.

History’s Nice, Business Counts

History aside, said Simpson and Memmott, the new terminal and other improvements are about addressing an obstacle to attracting not just aviation-related business but also corporate relocation of all kinds by creating an impressive gateway to the city and county.

Simpson said people looking to place businesses often will judge a city’s commitment to “investing in resources necessary to support business in that community by the condition of their airport.”

And for Spartanburg, said Memmott, that “was not a positive impression. We think it will be different now.”

With three stories, the new terminal has been designed to be as much a business center as a conventional terminal. It has four offices for rent on the second floor, and some already have been taken, Simpson said. There are conference rooms on all floors.

With 354 acres at the airport, Spartanburg now is “in a position to more aggressively market the airport as a place for aviation, not just the terminal building but the land we offer for aviation business. In the past when we would try that, the inadequate terminal was always an issue,” Memmott said.

Pilots are not forgotten. The new terminal includes a furnished lounge where pilots can rest between flights and shower and sleep on layovers.

The additional T hangers give the airport 36 for small planes and free up space in the bigger hangers for larger planes. Corporate hangers are located out-of-sight beyond the tree line.

The city estimates the improvements will double the airport’s annual economic contribution to around $30 million.

City Steps Up, FAA Listens

Willingness to improve the terminal also helped get more favorable cooperation from the Federal Aviation Authority, which funds 95 percent of the cost of runways, tarmacs and other safety features but not terminals, which are a local responsibility.

“Now that they could see that we are putting our money into it properly and managing it properly, they are much more helpful in terms of finding resources,” said Memmott.

Another signal convincing the FAA that Spartanburg was serious about airport improvements was the South Carolina Aeronautics Commission’s contribution of $500,000 for the terminal.

The city created the nonprofit Spartanburg Airport Facilities Corp. to own and manage the terminal under a lease-purchase agreement that uses, in the main, the city’s hospitality tax to make lease payments.

Working with Carolina First Bank, now TD Bank, Spartanburg leveraged unused credits from the New Market Tax Credit program that allows banks to reduce federal income taxes in exchange for below marketing financing for building projects in low-income census tracts.

Finally, said Memmott, “the timing for construction pricing was good” with the economic downturn creating hungry contractors and lower material costs.

The terminal was designed by McMillan Pazdan Smith. Harper Construction was general contractor.

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