VIENNA - Officials at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport didn't depend on the Hollywood's version of "build it and they will come" when planning to build aircraft hangars.
Tenants already are here.
"Every hangar in the first complex is leased, and there's already a waiting list for the second, which will be ready for occupancy in 2014," aviation Director Dan Dickten said in a news release announcing today's 11 a.m. hangar groundbreaking ceremony at the airport.
The Western Reserve Port Authority, which operates the airport, agreed at its April meeting to borrow $470,000 from Farmers Bank to build the first of three T-hangars, which has 14 tenants already signed up.
The buildings will be 1,050 square feet compared to existing 854-square-foot hangars built in the 1940s.
Dickten said the hangars will alleviate a shortage of adequate hangar space so the airport can capture a larger share of the region's general aviation business, which includes business and private aircraft.
The hangars are being built along with the airport's East Side Taxilane Development project, which is part of the airport's expansion and improvement program that includes remodeling the terminal interior, repaving sidewalks and parking lots and acquisition of a new passenger boarding bridge.
Dickten said the project will let the airport handle the growing number of passengers, including what officials believe will be steady traffic due to shale gas and oil drilling in the region.
"Airports like ours located in the Marcellus shale fields saw a substantial uptick in activity when exploration and drilling began," he said.
Dickten said airport officials, who already are seeing an increase in general aviation traffic, are talking with energy companies about their need for daily commercial service to their headquarter cities.
"We're continuing to work with them and do everything possible to secure the service they need," he said, adding the airport is a "local success story that's going to become more and more impressive in the years ahead."
Each of the T-hangar units will include electric bi-fold doors, personnel swing doors, concrete floors, overhead lighting and electric service.
Tenants will be able to heat their units by tying into the airport's natural gas supply, airport officials said. They may insulate their units if they wish.