Business View Magazine - October 2018

114 115 striving for a public-private partnership all of the time. How can the Airport and Bi-State Develop- ment build the public infrastructure to allow the private parties the best economic competitive advantage here at the airport? Bi-State Develop- ment does have the ability to issue bonds. So if there was a hangar that wanted to come up and a private party was looking to do that, we do have a way to fund private development hangars if that’s the path they wanted to choose. But in general, we would rent land and most of our revenue comes from land rentals versus hangar rents.” It’s a business model that works well for St. Louis Downtown, which is 100 percent self-fund- ed from those revenues, receiving no tax dollars or funds from Bi-State Development. The Airport also funds its own capital expenditures, including maintenance projects. “There are tax increment finance districts that exist, overlayed on the Airport from local juris- dictions, but they’re not something the Airport directly receives money from,” explains Dahl. “We do receive federal monies in the way of the FAA Airport Improvement program.We would pay five percent of those project costs and that all comes from the general fund. But we don’t receive any 2012 economic impact study found that the Air- port generates $584 million of economic output every year. “The impact that we have on the bi- state region, both sides of the Mississippi River, in Missouri and Illinois, but especially on the Illinois side; that $584 million in economic benefit to the local economy is phenomenal and very important to this region,” says Beck. Dahl echoes Beck’s opinion. “It does show that the Airport has a larger economic impact on the region than some baseball teams have on theirs,” he says. “So we do contribute to the region quite a bit.” Where hangars are concerned, the Airport owns comparatively few, most of them relatively old, including some 1929 Curtiss Wright hangars that were part of the airfield’s early expansion that were visited by aviation pioneers like Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and Jimmy Doolit- tle. There are also some T-hangars available as month-to-month rental space. “Nearly all the large infrastructure here at the airport, for hangars and ramps and things like that, are owned by private parties,” says Dahl. “St. Louis Downtown Airport looks at itself as ST. LOUIS DOWNTOWN AIRPORT ABOVE AND BEYOND Hanson Professional Services Inc. is an award-winning, employee-owned consulting firm providing engineering, planning and allied services. We focus on getting results from every phase of your project, exceeding expectations with our hands-on approach. We go above and beyond for you. OFFICES NATIONWIDE www.hanson-inc.com (800) 788-2450 UAS-BASED SURVEYING LAND ACQUISITION ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS ENGINEERING MASTER PLANNING ENERGY & COMMISSIONING ECONOMIC & PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS & MANAGEMENT PLANNING PROVIDING GULFSTREAM.COM As Gulfstream Aerospace grows, the St. Louis community is right outside our window, supporting our business, joining us in volunteer efforts and helping our families thrive. A PROUD PARTNER 18635584_BusinessView_October_V1a.indd 1 9/13/18 1:45 PM