{"id":95791,"date":"2019-02-01T16:28:54","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T23:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-airport-plans-to-purchase-property-for-expansion\/"},"modified":"2019-02-01T16:28:54","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T23:28:54","slug":"durango-airport-plans-to-purchase-property-for-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-airport-plans-to-purchase-property-for-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango airport plans to purchase property for expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Durango-La Plata County Airport on Friday released plans to purchase a 12.5-acre plot of land adjacent to the airport to allow growth and development.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The city announced Friday that the Durango-La Plata County Airport plans to buy land and two commercial buildings across the street from the airport to expand.<\/p>\n

The contract includes a $3.9 million purchase of 12.523 acres and two commercial buildings on the north-northeast side of the existing terminal. The parcel is owed by Koinonia Properties LLC.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, this is a very strategic opportunity we here at the airport took advantage of,\u201d Tony Vicari, airport director, told The Durango Herald <\/em>on Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s a very rare opportunity to acquire land adjacent to a terminal facility. In most other circumstances, that\u2019s already spoken for or developed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a new release, the city of Durango said acquiring the land will \u201callow for long-term airport growth and open new development alternatives for consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sale is not complete, Vicari said.<\/p>\n

Durango city councilors and La Plata County commissioners first have to approve the contract through separate votes. The city will vote Feb. 5, and the county will vote Feb. 12.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt said the property is an ideal location for the airport\u2019s expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs our population has been growing, the need for the airport to grow and expand has been evident for several years now,\u201d Lachelt said.<\/p>\n

Durango Mayor Sweetie Marbury agreed the expansion is good news for Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

\"A
A 12.5-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Durango-La Plata County Airport will allow the airport to study ways to expand to meet demand over the coming years.<\/span>Courtesy of Durango-La Plata County Airport<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt will be wonderful for our community,\u201d Marbury said. \u201cIt will allow the airport to grow and pay its own way, and I think that\u2019s the right way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

If approved, the airport expansion would not require funds from the city of Durango, La Plata County or taxpayers. It also would not require the airport to raise any fees, Vicari said.<\/p>\n

Instead, the expansion would be funded by existing fees from the \u201cPassenger Facility Charge,\u201d a $4.50 fee assessed to every airport passenger. That way, the expansion would be funded entirely by people who use the airport, Vicari said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really got a strong message from La Plata County voters in 2016,\u201d he said, referring to a failed property tax hike for the airport<\/a>. \u201cWe listened to that, and now we\u2019re looking at less aggressive, self-funded ways to incrementally move forward to meet our growing demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the news release, the land is likely going to be used for passenger vehicle parking expansion, rental car facilities and a circulation road or airport road realignment, which could open land for possible terminal expansion.<\/p>\n

Vicari said passenger traffic at the airport increased 1.8 percent in 2018<\/a> and has more than doubled over the past 15 years, creating pressure on facilities and infrastructure that haven\u2019t been extensively updated in years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to see additional air service in our market, we need to make the investments necessary to accommodate growing demand and the ever-evolving needs of the airline industry,\u201d Vicari said in the release. \u201cOur 30-year-old terminal facility has served us well, serving over 7.3 million passengers since 1988, but it is not designed to handle the level of air traffic that we see today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vicari told the Herald<\/em> on Friday that the property was listed on the market in the past year, which presented a rare opportunity to expand. For the most part, the airport is surrounded by developed land.<\/p>\n

If the purchase is completed, an ensuing study will evaluate existing terminal facilities and long-term consideration of renovation, expansion or new construction of airport facilities. The study would also look at a funding strategy that uses airport revenue sources.<\/p>\n

According to the city\u2019s news release, the airport had 378,000 passengers in 2018 and contributes $280 million annually to the regional economy. The airport does not receive any local tax funding and operates on self-sustaining revenue.<\/p>\n

The two buildings at 820 Airport Road were built in the mid-1990s by Loronix, a security software company that later became Verint Inc. Most recently, Crossfire LLC, an oil and energy company, was based in the buildings.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City, county must approve $3.9 million deal for acreage, buildings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1020,915,13,1680,1512,1469],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-durango-city-council","tag-durango-la-plata-county-airport","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-la-plata-county-commissioners","tag-la-plata-county-government","tag-travel-and-commuting"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95791"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}