Business View Magazine | February 2021

141 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2021 YAK IMA A I R TERMINAL – MCALL I STER F I ELD A long-term goal is to replace the airport’s terminal building that was originally constructed in the 1950s. It has been expanded since then, but the end result is a disjointed design that does not promote efficient flow of passengers. In the next five or six years a plan will be developed to design a new building. A complete demolition of the old building will follow, likely near the beginning of the next decade. “We want to make sure our community has a state-of- the-art facility, and that allows us to continue to attract airlines into the local community and then we can continue to expand once we’re over the pandemic,” Peterson says. “It’s just a matter of time before we’ll get back to some form of normalcy. You gotta keep plugging away.” Creekside Business Park, located on about 15 acres of land leased from the airport, has provided the Yakima Valley with professional office and medical facilities. A number of specialty medical offices, from eye care to gastroenterology, are located there. “As the community continues to grow, we have the ability to expand their businesses here on airport property to not only provide the community with the support and space they need, but also provide diverse revenues for the airport to make sure that we’re all sustainable,” Peterson explains. McCormick Air Center offers another opportunity for growth at the airport. The fixed base operator just built a new T-hangar, which allows approximately eight aircraft to be housed in the new facility. Those hangars are heated and protect smaller aircraft from the cold, snowy weather that comes to the Yakima Valley each winter. “So there is the option to build eight more,” Peterson reports. “But right now we’re waiting for that capacity to reach the first eight, which I think we now have one or two more bays left. And once that’s done, we’ll think about expanding hangar development at the airport. It’s all about meeting that local community need as we transition the aviation industry.”