In
The picture . . . strategically located in the
heart of the Rickenbacker Inland Port, the Rickenbacker
Global Logistics Park currently provides over
60 million square feet of distribution space,
with room for expansion.
Five campuses provide
tenants access to three major transportation options
– road, rail, and air, offering all ability
to obtain Foreign-Trade Zone status.
Proximity to major
highways provides access to 47 percent of U.S.
and 33 percent of Canadian populations within
a one-day drive.
Development opportunities
accommodate an additional millions of square feet
of warehouse and distribution space.
The park provides
thousands of jobs and a huge economic boost for
Central Ohio and beyond, and unimpaired access
to passenger-focused Port Columbus International
Airport. |
Port
Columbus International Airport is centrally located
in Ohio as home to a diverse mix of air carriers.
The airport is operated
by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which also
oversees the operation of cargo-dedicated Rikenbacker
International Airport and general aviation airport Bolton
Field.
Additionally, the Columbus
Regional Airport Authority is the Grantee of Foreign-Trade
Zone No. 138. As Grantee, the Airport Authority is responsible
for the administration, marketing, and oversight of
FTZ No. 138 and can provide FTZ services in twenty-five
Central Ohio counties.
The
Challenge
Airports
often struggle to justify and fund projects related
to air cargo. They face the challenges of large capital
needs and limited dollars, opposition to airport expansion,
or lack a cohesive vision for freight.
Often the airport’s
cargo infrastructure needs take a back seat to competing
passenger projects that garner more public interest,
or that have a more clearly defined ROI. Sometimes,
airports have limited activity that produces revenue
insufficient to fund additional cargo investments. Rickenbacker
International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, is mostly an
example of the latter.
While it is important
for an airport to have a growth strategy, going it alone
inevitably puts a limit on what can be accomplished.
This is a story of the partnerships needed to grow the
airport beyond what it was alone capable of, while elevating
the awareness of cargo’s key role in regional
economic success.
Originally built in 1942
as Lockbourne Army Air Base (hence the identifier “LCK”),
responsibility for the airport was transferred to a
civilian Port Authority for conversion into a commercial
use area in the early 1980s. When the Rickenbacker Port
Authority merged with the Columbus Municipal Airport
Authority in 2003, there remained significant challenges
to making Rickenbacker a successful and sustainable
airport.
Though the area was a
budding logistics hub and local municipalities were
starting to reap the employment and tax rewards of growing
warehouse parks, the airport itself was struggling to
keep up with the cost of maintaining a very large airfield
and at the same time providing the infrastructure investment
needed for growth. If Rickenbacker itself was going
to become sustainable and economically beneficial to
the Ohio Valley Region, it needed help.
Building
Partnerships
Large
airport improvement programs typically involve governmental
engagement on a federal, state, city, township, and
village-level, navigating the varied interests of elected
officials and constituents across multiple jurisdictions.
Fortunately, elected officials are aware that local
businesses fuel their economies and the jobs they create
keep their constituents happy. If everyone works towards
the common goal of attracting new businesses, adding
jobs and income tax dollars, partnerships can become
very desirable to all parties, including area businesses.
As warehouses sprung up and more freight moved through
the Rickenbacker area, it became clear that the next
priority would be improving the surrounding roadway
system.
Over more than a decade,
a concerted effort of planning and shared public funding
brought nearly $100 million worth of roadway improvements
and associated infrastructure upgrades to the area.
These improvements literally paved the way for both
freight and labor to travel safer, creating more efficient
routes in and out of Rickenbacker. At the same time,
the roadway work also strengthened the airport’s
opportunity to share in the growth by connecting excess
off-airport land owned by the Airport Authority that
could be leveraged for development.
Beyond
Expectations
When
the recession hit the U.S. in 2008-2009, everything
came to a screeching halt. Airport business was down,
retail business was down, and no one was investing in
new construction or expanding warehouse operations.
In the midst of the doom and gloom, hundreds of civic-minded
leaders within the Central Ohio community came together
to brainstorm ways to collaborate and leverage resources
in order to create jobs and dig out of the financial
doldrums.
This group eventually
became known as Columbus2020 and was backed by the strong
support of both business and government partners. When
Columbus2020 officially launched in 2010, it did so
with measurable key performance indicators aimed at
strengthening and diversifying the economic base by
building on existing assets, attracting new investments,
creating new business opportunities, and thereby growing
the employment base and wage level.
Under the expanded umbrella
and strategy of Columbus2020, which promoted the logistics
capabilities of the region, Rickenbacker’s air
cargo potential became a key strategic component to
attracting and retaining business and the airport gained
broader and deeper support within the business community.
Celebrating
Success
While
air carriers and shippers are fairly nimble and able
to jump in and out of markets in relatively short timeframes,
the infrastructure required to support freight operations
is fixed at the airport and often subject to planning
horizons that stretch for decades. Unlike the landside
roadway infrastructure upgrades, the cost of which is
shared by multiple public sources, the airside is traditionally
the airport’s sole responsibility to develop.
While FedEx and UPS continued
to serve Rickenbacker with multiple flights on a nightly
basis, international air cargo activity for a long time
consisted of wide body charters that served a very limited
number of shippers and their forwarder partners. That
began to change in 2013 when Cargolux became the first
international freighter operator to offer regularly
scheduled import service from Hong Kong to Columbus.
Cathay Pacific Cargo and Emirates SkyCargo soon followed
suit. Shortly thereafter all three began consolidating
export freight at LCK to complement their inbound loads,
an activity that was largely absent prior to the regular
service.
With increasing international
activity, the airport suddenly found itself in need
of new air cargo terminal space, while at the same time
lacking the capital to fund development in the short
term. Funding outlays for a new $8 million air
traffic control tower were already taking up the current
budget. Additional large expenditures necessary for
airfield upkeep and NAVAID upgrades dwarfed the tower
investment and consumed the budget for nearly the next
decade. This posed a serious question: How could Rickenbacker
seize on the momentum of new international service without
incurring untenable debt?
In
order to tackle the issue, a true public/private dialog
was started in 2014 supported by Columbus2020 and with
collaboration between the airport and local shipping
interest. Traditional 3rd party developers were sought
out to construct the new building, but remained focused
on traditional gateways; therefore stakeholders came
up with an alternate solution. The new Rickenbacker
cargo terminal was constructed via a land lease to a
non-traditional entity backed by a large international
shipper willing to share the risks in support of a broader
regional vision. Like traditional 3rd party development
arrangements, the building owner would be responsible
for tenant leasing while keeping the vision that the
facility would be open for all comers to utilize through
a single terminal operator.
At the same time the
building arrangement was struck, Franklin County Commissioners
provided a critical piece funding for the new air traffic
control tower, allowing some airport money to be freed
up to contribute to ramp and utilities for the new cargo
terminal. The City of Columbus and State of Ohio also
contributed critical support to roadway and associated
infrastructure, thus collectively ensuring the WWII-era
tower would be replaced on schedule and the first phase
of the new international air cargo terminal—unplanned
when the tower project began—would open shortly
thereafter.
With construction underway,
the final piece of the puzzle was the selection of a
neutral, 3rd-party terminal operator for the new building.
Total Airport Services, which operates air cargo terminals
at seven major airports in the U.S., was ultimately
selected to run the new Rickenbacker building.
The new “Air Cargo
Terminal #5” opened on May 31st, 2016, in the
first phase of what would eventually become 250,000
square feet (23,225 square meters) of new on-ramp cargo
terminal and office space. The building houses a community
of stakeholders with the airlines, forwarders, and other
service providers all under one roof with the terminal
operator. Shared meeting, recruiting, and training spaces
were also provided, as well as space for an in-house
staffing agency. All of this would not have come to
fruition if it weren’t for the collaboration and
support of both public and private entities all working
together for a wider regional goal.
An
Airport Thinking Beyond Air
The
air cargo industry knows that air freight accounts for
less than 10 percent of the volume of international
trade. This makes ocean connectivity just as important
to the airport in order to help regional business meet
all of their transportation needs.
At the same time that
the Rickenbacker area started growing, the Columbus
Regional Airport Authority collaborated with Norfolk
Southern (railroad) Corporation to build and open the
Rickenbacker Intermodal Rail Terminal on land adjacent
to the airfield.
Some within the community
questioned the philosophy of an Airport Authority jumping
into the railroad and ocean container arena. But in
actuality, adding rail/ocean connectivity to Rickenbacker
opened the door to Rickenbacker becoming a one-stop
shop for logistics. This again reflects an innovative,
collaborative effort between airport, railroad, and
government, appropriately including substantial investment
by Norfolk Southern itself.
Looking
At Tomorrow
Today
the Rickenbacker area boasts nearly 70 million square
feet (6.5 million square meters) of warehouse, distribution,
and air cargo space concentrated within a few short
miles of the airport runways. The success that businesses
and freighter operators have found through Rickenbacker
could not have been accomplished without strong partnerships
and efforts of a broader-than-usual number of diverse
players. Those public/private partnerships formed to
tackle development challenges continue to lead us toward
future growth opportunities.
To many outside of the
airport, the perception is that Rickenbacker has seen
significant growth and success virtually overnight.
But those who have been working diligently to cultivate
strong and mutually beneficial relationships know that
this is the result of hard work by many hands over many
years.
Geoffrey
To
Read Part One and Part Two In The Airport Series
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