Business View Magazine | June 2019

203 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JUNE 2019 MAR I ANNA MUNI C I PAL A I RPORT The Airport is owned by the city and relies on city workers to provide non-aviation maintenance and operations. “The airport is an enterprise fund for the city,” says City Manager, Jim Dean. “That means it operates as its own business identity. There is also an airport commerce park and so the whole airport generates revenue from airport operations, hangar rentals, and fuel sales, and also from the other facilities surrounding the airport that are quasi-aviation related and part of the airport commerce park enterprise. In this way, we are financially self-supporting. Hart explains that the commerce park covers a fairly significant area with some businesses there that require apron access, such as Safari Helicopters, which manufactures and tests their helicopters, but there are also many non-aviation businesses onsite that do not require access to the runways. “We have a new economic development area that includes a piece of property that has been tested and is shovel ready, should a major industrial client want to move in and build,” says Hart. “We are constantly trying to improve the facilities we have, as well as make sure that we can offer a competitive space to call home.” The next planned improvement, which has already been contracted out, is to increase the north/ south runway length from 4,900 to 6,000 feet. With Federal Aviation Administration grants and matching funds from the Florida Department of Transportation, the Airport was able to upgrade its