Business View Magazine November-December 2018

82 83 FREE Hot Breakfast FREE Wi-Fi Business Center 24-Hour Fitness Center 37” Flat Screen HDTV Refrigerators in ALL rooms Seasonal Outdoor Pool Complimentary Airport/Area Shuttle Making You Happy Makes Us Happy! 100% Hampton Guarantee. Hampton Inn by Hilton Columbia I-26 Airport 1094 Chris Drive • West Columbia, SC 29169 | Exit 110, off I-26 803.791.8940 | hamptoninn3.hilton.com Newly Renovated! and does not receive any state or local tax dollars, but generates around $847million for South Car- olina.Over 40 businesses operate on the airport’s campus, comprising 1,800 full-time jobs. Mike Gula is CAE’s Executive Director and Frank Murray is the Director of Planning & Facilities.High on their agendas is increasing economic develop- ment within the Airport complex.“Right now, our infrastructure is in really good shape,”Gula points out.“We committed a lot of dollars over the last ten years to get things to where they need to be.”Mur- ray agrees.“We’ve gotten caught up with our main facilities,”he echoes.“We’ve done a lot of renova- tions of our terminal and gotten the airfield where it needs to be. So,we’re at a point, now,where we can start looking to define some projects over the next five to ten years that would lend themselves to economic development.” “We see a lot of growth in the City and the Uni- versity (of South Carolina) is expanding in a couple of different research arenas like advanced materi- als and aerospace technology, and businesses are starting to utilize the skill sets that are here,”Gula reports.“We see that reflected in our enplanement numbers, over the last fewyears, as businesses start to grow and come into this area.We think that there is opportunity for us if we can add that devel- opment to the Airport or around the vicinity of the Airport.That will continue to boost our numbers. It’s a supply and demand situation–the more people that fly, the more competitive our airlines start to be and that starts to push the prices down,while generating the need to go to different destinations. So, the more growth in the City, the better for the Airport, and the more the Airport is likely to get people where they need to go.” THE COLUMBIA METROPOLITAN AIRPORT The Hampton Inn by Hilton Columbia I-26 Airport is a Proud Partner of the Columbia Metropolitan Airport Enjoy the comforts of home and service-oriented Team Members at our ideally located and newly renovated Hampton Inn Columbia I-26 Airport, in West Columbia, SC, off Exit 110, where Happiness is Guaranteed with every stay. Just across the street from Lexington Medical Center, our hotel provides easy access to Historic Downtown Columbia and various Capital City attractions and businesses. Find a treasure at the West Columbia Antique District or stroll through Columbia’s famous Soda City Market. Enjoy dinner at one of the myriad of surrounding restaurants - includ- ing some of our local favorites. Our hotel is only a convenient 30 minute drive to Fort Jackson Army installation or Lake Murray Country; you can easily access Charleston, SC, Greenville, SC or Charlotte, NC, within a 2-hour drive. Don’t forget to use your Hilton Honors number, where you can accumulate points and miles, and redeem those points for free night stays and even use them to make purchas- es on Amazon.com Making You Happy Makes Us Happy! We look forward to your stay!