{"id":7389,"date":"2020-05-01T16:39:09","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T20:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=7389"},"modified":"2020-05-01T16:39:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T20:39:17","slug":"growth-at-lakeland-linder-airport-diversifies-revenue-brings-stability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2020\/05\/01\/growth-at-lakeland-linder-airport-diversifies-revenue-brings-stability\/","title":{"rendered":"GROWTH AT LAKELAND LINDER AIRPORT DIVERSIFIES REVENUE, BRINGS STABILITY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Aviation and aerospace remain a critical component to Polk County\u2019s economy, and Lakeland Linder International Airport continues to add to that cluster.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the heels of landing Amazon Air in late 2019, Lakeland Linder<\/a> will now continue its expansion with the announcement that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a> will add more employees and three new aircraft to its fleet of Hurricane Hunters based there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working since August 2019 on this expansion,\u201d said airport director Gene Conrad. Along with 50 to 75 new employees and the new planes comes something even more important, a firm 15-year lease that could reach 20 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s really important to us at the airport,\u201d Conrad said. \u201cIt solidifies their existence here for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOAA moved the home operation of its Hurricane Hunters from Tampa to 100,000-square-feet of space in the Aircraft Operations Center at Lakeland Linder in 2017. This expansion will add another 69,000 square feet to the space it leases. The Lakeland City Commission approved the contract for the $12.3 million expansion, Conrad said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-skill, Higher-wage Jobs<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The year-round presence of the Hurricane Hunters helps raise the profile of the airport, Lakeland and Polk County, Conrad said. And, they bring high-skill, high-wage jobs. \u201cThey have 110 team members here. Bringing more jobs to our community is what we\u2019re focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those jobs are coveted, especially as the county continues to plan the Central Florida Innovation District.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNOAA has highly skilled workers who can stimulate the development of our Innovation District and, more importantly, the Florida Polytechnic University students who one day might work there to turn research into innovations and inventions that are extremely important to the state,\u201d said retired Air Force Major General USAF (ret.)  Jake Polumbo, chairman of the Central Florida Development Council\u2019s board of directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOAA also brings stability, a steady revenue stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversification<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook at what\u2019s happening with the pandemic,\u201d Conrad said, adding that revenue from NOAA and other long-term leases helps with continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTen years ago, we were not as diversified as we are now. Revenues were $3.5 annually, next year they will be over $10 million. It\u2019s taken a lot of hard work by our team, city manager\u2019s office and city commissioners to focus on specific things that diversify our revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not relying on commercial air service like the airports in Huntsville, Alabama, and Springfield, Illinois, has helped, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are really suffering right now because a lot of revenue comes from commercial tenants. We\u2019re not harmed,\u201d Conrad said. \u201cWe have a great pool of revenue. Amazon is coming on as well. It puts us in a good spot to weather the ups and downs in the economy that are inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conrad said preparing the airport for NOAA\u2019s arrival in 2017 showed how quickly the airport can adapt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat provides other companies, like Amazon, an example, a showpiece, that says: \u2018This is what we can do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the space the airport can lease is at capacity, Conrad would still like to attract new businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had the opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cCompanies that do maintenance are interested, but nothing as of yet. But that doesn\u2019t mean it won\u2019t happen in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOAA plans to add three more aircrafts to its fleet of nine at Lakeland Linder. Together, the fleet will study hurricanes and tropical storms, as well as serve in an emergency response capacity and take photographs after a storm hits, Conrad said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hurricane Hunters also are important to the state, and not just during hurricane season, which starts June 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir work is very high tech, and they do critical research for hurricane predictions and preparations, as well as on climate change,\u201d Polumbo said. \u201cFlorida needs their data and analysis to prepare for the changes we\u2019re seeing to our coastlines and water levels.  NOAA\u2019s growing presence also makes Central Florida key and essential in protecting the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater oil spill 10 years ago. We\u2019re fortunate to have these talented scientists and skilled operators with us here in Lakeland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city is paying $4 million for some work at the airport and financing the rest. NOAA will pay the city back through its lease, which now amounts to $2.5 million annually for 15 years, Conrad said. That includes rent, operating costs and loan repayment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timing couldn\u2019t be better as air traffic has fallen off quite a bit since the coronavirus pandemic hit, Conrad said. Tenants are still flying into and out of the airport, and he thinks others will come back. \u201cBut I think it will be slow in returning as companies figure out finances and where they are at.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Updates on Other Projects<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
  • Amazon Air is moving \u201cfull steam ahead\u201d on its $100 million air cargo hub on 47 acres, and its 223,000-square-foot building will be ready June 1, Conrad said.  \u201cAll ground support equipment is starting to arrive, and they will start training ground handlers at the beginning of May.\u201d<\/li>
  • The airport is putting the finishing touches on a $25 million project to upgrade its No. 1 asset \u2014 a runway that will be used for the next 20 years, he said. The runway meets Amazon\u2019s minimum standards and is available for commercial service users.<\/li>
  • Conrad said the airport\u2019s master plan was submitted to the Federal Aviation Administration three weeks ago and he is waiting for their comments. The biggest change in the plan is relocating the airport\u2019s smaller runway to make it parallel to the major runway.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Aviation and aerospace remain a critical component to Polk County\u2019s economy, and Lakeland Linder International Airport continues to add to that cluster. On the heels of landing Amazon Air in… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}