AIR PLANS

By Charles Sowell  

AUGUST 18, 2010 8:00 a.m. (0)

A $2.5 million renovation and upgrade project at the Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport is the first phase of a project that would see the facility increase its economic impact on the area from $10 million to more than $30 million.

“It’s the kind of thing that is going to require long-term commitment from the city,” said Dick Lewis, director of aviation for the Concord (N.C.) Regional Airport, a city-run facility located on the outskirts of Charlotte.

The Concord airport reports a $110 million economic impact locally, Lewis said.

Spartanburg actually has more take offs and landings than Concord (69,000 for Spartanburg and 54,000 for Concord in 2009). The difference in economic impact lies in what is done along the edges of the runways in providing service to planes and in things like hangar rental.

Spartanburg is in for the long haul, said Ed Memmott, city manager. The city has helped the airport secure a loan of about $4 million to help pay for improvements and start developing the 544-acre property.

The loan is to be repaid through rental payments on t-hangars, said Darwin Simpson, airport director. T-hangars are named because of their interior capital “T” shape which is designed to fit a small airplane.

There is a 66 plane waiting list for hangar space right now and as more facilities are built Simpson expects to see demand mushroom. Other improvements could be funded in a similar manner as the airport’s future unfolds.

Simpson sees the airport as under utilized. “Essentially all that was done out here for years was cut the grass,” he said.

It is Spartanburg’s largest single property and the prospects of more hangar rows and aviation-related industry lining the periphery, excites Simpson, a retired South Carolina Army National Guard major general and vice president of logistics for Van Waters & Rogers, Inc., of Spartanburg.

Simpson is an airplane junkie who will take to the skies at the drop of a hat.

He’s also a hard-headed businessman who sees no good reason Spartanburg’s airport cannot at least equal the economic impact of the Greenville Downtown Airport.

Greenville Downtown has an aggregate economic impact of around $30 million a year, said Joe Frasher, airport director, and employs more than 400 people at the facility proper and with related companies on site.

Spartanburg’s airport has eight employees and provides employment for fewer than 200, according to city figures.

“Every airport is different,” Frasher said. “We are a special tax district and not run by the city. In Concord they are city run, but have the considerable advantage of NASCAR’s headquarters at the Lowe’s Motor Speedway being right next door.”

Lewis said NASCAR has played a pivotal role in Concord’s meteoric rise.

The airport was finished in the 1994, but the facility has other advantages like the ease of getting in and out of Charlotte that make it a major economic player in the metro area.

Spartanburg’s modest first plans see airport’s terminal as the focus with observation decks, a history theme and children’s playground in addition to building new rental t-hangars.

The terminal is an architectural gem and is steeped in aviation history, Simpson said.

Spartanburg was the first operational airport in South Carolina and has played host to legends of the early days of flying like Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart and Eddie Rickenbacker.

Robert Turner and Doris Bell were married at 5,000 feet over the Spartanburg tarmac in 1932 in what reportedly was first aerial wedding, Simpson said.

Simpson intends to play on the history of the airport as a marketing tool to potential customers. He is in a unique position at the airport to know first when potential new businesses fly in to check out the city.

He sees the refurbished terminal as Spartanburg’s aerial gateway to the city and he thinks many of his plans for the airport can be done for relatively little money since the Federal Aviation Administration will pay for things like water and sewer to serve the facility.

There are advantages to being a well-run general aviation airport and not a major facility like Charlotte-Douglas or Greenville Spartanburg Airport, Simpson, Lewis and Frasher agree.

The big airports don’t want to deal with small aircraft, they said, since they are in the business of moving lots of people on commercial jets through as quickly as possible. But there is considerable business to be had in dealing with smaller aircraft, even in troubled economic times.

Simpson would like to see Spartanburg cash in on that.

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