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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08 - Appendix A - Site Visit Meeting NotesAppendix A Site Visit Meeting Notes MEETING AGENDA CH2MHILLG Georgetown Municipal Airport Business Analysis - Meeting with TXDOT and City of Georgetown Staff ATTENDEES: PROJECT NUMBER: MEETING DATE: MEETING TIME: VENUE: Ed Polasek, City of Georgetown Sarah Hinton, Airport Manager Michelle Hannah, TXDOT Aviation Division William Gunn, TXDOT Aviation Division Chip Snowden, Project Director Laura Holthus, Project Manager 461420 October 24, 2012 8:30a m Airport Office Meeting Notes 1. Introductions 2. Project Overview • Finance dep't — declining in fuel sales; leases meant to cover capital cost; MP says airport not growing — City wants a capital mtc plan and honest assessment of airport o Long term capital mtc o Ongoing mtc o No general fund revenue to airport o ID all issues and consolidate in report o TXDOT advise 3. Site Visit Goals • Bring airport expertise /best practices to airport • Look at cap mtc on books now and do gap analysis • Lease mgmt /org /min stds best practices 4. Data Collection / Input from TXDOT: • Compliance issues — will run drafts by TXDOT — this is a reliever airport and busy; important to TX. • Waiting list for hangars — any creative way to get rental spaces to generate positive cash flow is a good thing — aggressively market worldwide — consider "new runway" o Exec. Airport is privately owned; Austin is only metroplex of >lm people that only has 1 airport servicing city and only 3 relievers. They need relievers; Houston —18 relievers, DFW has 23 relievers o The City Council past leadership said "we're not going to grow" and those policies are reflected in the MP o Past airport manager stated their job is to "pump gas and mow the grass" • Will have political issues to overcome o Want to improve relationship with TXDOT • What would it take to develop west side o Endangered species problem — 2 season assessment — juvenile species o Informally look at west side o Economic development opportunities o Extend RWY to 6000' would entail moving roads, houses — likely not feasible • Need to decide: just a GA /piston airport, or jet airport with longer rwy. 5000' rwy limiting jets • Need to look at what Exec is providing vs. what GTU could provide • SE Side: o Developable area — corporate industrial • Existing site has most immediate options: o TWYA • Obstruction clearance /access Id where short-falls are and what the airport would need to do from a business perspective to make the airport viable for the longer term, then the Master Plan needs to come in and help justify those ideas. • Previous MP triggered by FAA saying the airport needed to come into compliance; FAA waiting for mitigation — losing approach if not mitigated • Business Plan needs: o Reviewing leases in full (only been dealing with them individually to -date) o Staff issue answered: 2 full -time mtc people, finance person, assistance airport director, Ground side mtc should not do airport mtc, etc. o Land use designations — aviation vs. non - aviation uses in MP; at the time of the MP, eastside can handle developable needs of 20- years. Didn't have to push into the other spaces. • There's a road stubbed out in Westside; was for proposed development o Re producing non - aviation revenue: • Non - aviation on airport property — is MP designation of lands correct? • SE area would be good for aviation support industry — airport could market this — although half of this land doesn't belong to the airport • NW quadrant has access issues • North area: debate on whether it's airport property or City property — City can deed it over to airport — Ed will check with Terry on property boundary. Good opportunity for aviation support area. o Mike Stasny has GIS files for City — Ed will provide contact o Leases: IN Should include SW mitigation requirements so they're not impacting other property outside of their leases; example with area SE of terminal where there are drainage issues — tenant didn't follow construction plans and pipe sizing, etc. IN Standards /construction plans not followed — City needs to hire own engineer to help review /inspect plans by tenants • If leased area construction doesn't follow airport standards, enforce requirement through lease agreement. o 7460 process — minimum standards need to be reviewed — don't know if they were ever reviewed • If TXDOT were to give GTU a grant for drainage for example, TXDOT would normally come out and inspect during construction o Streamline process so airport development process (which is different than city) is clearly understood by all o Access issues to future development area — OFA not clear between M, N, 0 buildings o Developer ready to put in 40 t- hangars tomorrow if power lines /poles were relocated east of buildings K, J, and L • Land lease is the revenue generation; plus up in avgas sales and maintenance • Single T -hgr could make ^'$280 /mo • Base business case analysis info in Plan o Once TWY -A is built ( -2015) will open up more development opportunities o Emergency funding to fix airfield lights • Civil needs: o Drainage issues o SWP o Pavement strength needs to be clarified on both runways • Original airport built in 1945 ■ Rehab was done on 18/36 in 1998 IN Rehab done on 11/29 in 2002 o When tenant builds facilities — need inspections by utilities in City o TXDOT /legal has clarified a ground lease on and airport with public funds supersedes any supposed privacy claims by tenant improvements. o Report will identify what all the needs are, big - picture • Need to match up City CIP with TXDOT's aviation plan MEETING NOTES CH2MHILL , Georgetown Municipal Airport Business Analysis - Meeting with City of Georgetown Finance Department ATTENDEES: PROJECT NUMBER: MEETING DATE: MEETING TIME: VENUE: Meeting Notes Ed Polasek, City of Georgetown Susan Morgan, Finance Director Chris Foster, Chief Financial /Utilities Analyst Chip Snowden, Project Director Laura Holthus, Project Manager 461420 October 24, 2012 10:30am City Hall 5. Goals and objectives: • Give airport some tools (key performance indicators) • Need fund management • Study to provide input for the City to work on revenue streams 6. City Finance input and discussion: • Behind on maintenance; scrambling to catch up • Historically enough margin to get through until C /O's on hangars paid off; setup repayment schedule • Maxed out on fuel charge, dropped net margin on sales —in emergency mode, spending all available funds • Three main policies in compliance: o Ongoing expenses have to be offset by revenues o Debt coverage policy is 1.5 o Don't generate enough cash to pay the debt • Can't get staff approved which the airport knows we need • Airports can contract out maintenance through bonding • Ed: condition of hangars proves the short -fall in maintenance • Need airport to look sellable • Jump in Building ISF is due to recent work in maintenance to catch up, then drops down when back in true maintenance mode • Chip: Contract maintenance is doable 7. Project needs: • We can come up with metrics for staffing, maintenance to operating • City will provide details behind rolled up financial information • Need standards — compare to what GTU does (money, personnel, time, equipment) • Policy discussion on how you'll generate revenue and grow airport o Tapped out fuel sale price (25% above next lowest fuel price) (verify) o Drill downs into fueling operations o FBO contracts need to be looked at o T- hangar rental prices were set to re -pay debt service, not based on maintenance and other needs • Anything that includes adding responsibilities will be tough — already operating on a shoe - string • Need to use staff smartly — between airport manager, fueling monitors (3 part- timers), need ops manager, Sarah needs to have more time for higher end marketing, business management, etc.) o 2 people get benefits, everyone else is Part -Time; if adding full -time people you're adding benefits • CPI adjustments. Board policy every 2 -years • Selling of fuel to jets: City doesn't have its own truck; other FBO's that have trucks, bad financial state so City wasn't providing fuel; tenants transfer fuel truck to truck — there's a work around that isn't right • Losing market share, LOS is going down by FBO's (part of the problem), owner can come in a takeover technically and is authorized by FAA to do so... • Hate property taxes, will have to levee property taxes to keep airport open if don't do something. • Jet and avgas fueling margins are lower than they should be; major tenant getting low margins that were established for start -up... o Avgas $0.70- $0.75 /gal if own card, down to $0.30 per gal if pre -paid through another company o Need backup in the Study illustrating how fueling operation should be setup • Hangar leases not equitable • No money to invest • Not certain if billing the leases the way they're supposed to be billed and following up on collections; auditors of the City don't look at airport closely — financial system of city does not include the airport (other enterprise funds are routed through the cities' financial system). o Part-time bookkeeper today — uses Excel. (Would like to be full -time, but no budget to support.) o Need to reexamine processes — have in a tighter orbit with Finance; Chris is working on tying the airport better to finance. Setup spreadsheets for the airport to follow. (Budget includes time for Finance to support.) o If airport on the cities' system, that may help with tracking /management. May have setup issues. If drop -in new data sets, you may have to change codes to account for it...would need to find out. "Needs to be examined if the cities' system can be adapted to the airport ". Could be an off - the -shelf solution. Or, if getting a new system, include the airport. o Digitizing system is in progress (lease agreements, etc.) o Want best practices reflected but also practical recommendations • HR, Finance, Purchasing, Legal (all administrative type) are covered under shared administrative activities by the City. • Enterprise operating system is Incode — functional for average city but it doesn't scale up (very slow with many users). Need better system with asset management components eventually. • Possible to go to City Council and get delegated authority for the fueling operation that will allow the airport to modify fueling? Yes —this is an Airport Board Policy, not City policy. • Board comprised of leaseholders • City will provide by -laws of Board; need a board dedicated to airport policies • Policy recommendations; use existing Transportation Board, or explore other opportunities to run a better business and City • City Council is generally unified • 2016 -2017 — debt starts getting paid off so in a better position to bridge gap in 0 -10yr period. $75k in higher net - margin would substantially support bridging the gap • How are other airports ran? Fuel flowage fee in most places. Since GTU has charge, that's better. San Marcos — think there's a lot of general revenue under the table. o Red flag on ISF budget? Issue on allocations? o Something more than ground leases is key... Ed follow -up: • David Monk — Water /Wastewater capacity • Mike Stasny GIS files • Terry Calhoun on property MEETING NOTES CH2MHILL® Georgetown Municipal Airport Business Analysis - Meeting with TXDOT and City of Georgetown Staff ATTENDEES: MEETING DATE: VENUE: Per attendee list October 24, 2012 Airport Office Tenant Input — Oct 24, 2012 (2pm open house) • City needs to advertise the airport • Most stakeholders own airplanes and will stay here — if costs don't increase too much • What it takes to grow is a different mix of traffic • Airport has potential but doesn't have a welcome mat out • Executive airport is not really topping GTU except because of the reason that you're welcome there; they have the staffing to cover needs • FBO's hours: 7 -6pm City terminal open until 7pm — bad LOS • Facilities need to be opened to serve customers • Cost, convenience issues • Tower and approaches are good • Wonderful location; easy access to most places • Airport needs enough traffic to help pay for needed projects • Couple based jets would go a long way • Support more businesses on field to service aircraft. Corporate operators would support a lot of other businesses in the area • Direct competition: San Marcos and Austin Executive • City makes it difficult for businesses to come into the airport — if airport leases property for 20 -40 years, reverts back to City... • Hangar in the works since February • GTU has a town square committee that works on building business — beautiful conference centers; yet no one knows about that in the aviation community. Need a marketing plan and better PR. o Egg Drop — only thing that went wrong is too many people came — points out the fact that the airport is a magnet to people when advertised correctly o Turn opinion positive in community by events such as Egg Drop which brought out 9,000 people o One of the best kept secrets — but should not be a secret • Not high enough attention to airport — unfortunate event with Air Show in past which made negative community opinion • Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Round Rock should be involved • Regional use of this airport is important — Williamson County Economic Development group — do they understand what the airport means to them, and if so have they thought about joint marketing plans? Need to get them involved. Chamber of Commerce, etc., others should advertise, but need good service, good ramps, etc. to serve that increased traffic. • FBO was opened until 10pm, now down to 6pm because less business...chicken and egg. Can't afford to staff for one arrival. • Courtesy car or rental car to provide pilots to go shopping /eating in City • Advantages over Austin Executive: o GTU is more convenient to 1 -35 o Austin Exec doesn't have a crosswind runway o Costs are higher at AUS • 5,500' RWY would be better for jets. • Bad jet rap due to OFA problems, and penetration at end of runway (that's being dealt with) — can improve reputation of outsiders; change reputation with City. • Safety needs. ASDA or OEI is the controlling length need; clearway wouldn't necessarily allow more declared length for more load. • Other potential: o Dell computers is in Round Rock, but not coming through GTU o F1 races o 55 -60 airplanes at airports north (tail- draggers) with Kitty Hill closing — need a home. • Flight school: obstacle has been finding places for growing business. Busting at seems and want to stay. Want customers to stay. But if no space they have to go. • 4 -5 year wait for T- Hangar (175 people). Will have to issue bonds to build hangars, so need outside investors o Investor — need power poles to move to build T -Hgrs (41) o Bravo hangar needs to come down — gain 10 -12 spaces • City should: o Consider EMAS — enhance safety of airport o Runway extension will cause too many problems o Need education campaign prior to and in support of a stopway /EMAS /or other ways to get more aircraft loads • Shut down at 6pm • City, businesses, charter operators input are needed • Subsidize some of the projects • Need to sell City government on what they've got with this airport asset (sell upside potential so they fully understand what they have) • Revenue potential is key • Rules and regs and minimum standards are baseline needs that we will help with. • Easier to get to north Austin from GTU than anywhere else • Most turbo aircraft are individual owners o Include next steps after this plan (need Airport Master Plan Update to get the teeth behind the development needs and opportunities Tenant Input — Oct 24, 2012 (4pm open house) • Things sat too long without fixing (major political issues) • LPV approach not here — survey done 5 yrs ago • Airport made money before; don't know why not making money anymore • Market has not declined — need to "up game" • Need clear vision of where the airport should be — either spend money to make it legitimate and understand what it takes • Need community support • FBO owner: large retirement community — active politically; quick growing community surrounding Austin area; o Lot of high tech jobs and manufacturing jobs on north /NW side of Austin • Austin rated #1 best places to live /work /etc. • Most underserved GA market • Reagan Harbor road — people from Austin are moving there; another along 130 • McKinney Airport north of Dallas — Alliance is land- locked, so promoting and airports growing leaps and bounds — Austin similar situation. Either meet the needs /demand and setup for it, or ? • NW area is to make up for impervious areas • Need to realign land uses and get capacity by better land use planning • Need political alignment • SWPP —tough process to get things developed • Would like to see historic 5 -yr cost through 5 -years out • Growth is needed beyond P &L of today's operation • T- hangar investment — ideas should be tempered with real costs...is there a way to incentivize PPP's to invest? • Surface leases have 20 years with 10 year kicker; if leases built onto, have to return to city at end of lease with no guarantee of getting investment back — needs to be based on fair price /market rate or cash recovery • Management looking into leases to revert to owner after 30 years, not City...is this a good practice? • Political best practices: how do successful airports operate and generate revenue /navigate the politics? • Community outreach is important — grass roots work; air shows; get community on airport's side since they influence City Council Tenant Input — Oct 25, 2012 (9am open house) • Last 30 year problems has been between the airport and the City • Airport Advisory Board supposed to help get things done for the airport, but they're stuck in the middle • Want outcome to be: how do cities utilize and appreciate their airport...successful airports have alignment between politics and their airport manager • Land use surrounding the airport is important — don't want new development that's not airport friendly — need zoning regs and ordinances for both height and incompatible land uses • Transportation to /from the airport • Reach is beyond GTU — with old Exec. closed and new one opened • Full support for Sarah is needed — she's doing an excellent job for the airport and doesn't have the support she needs • 10 years ago anti- airport City Council • Revenue enhancement comments: EAA chapter wants to be based at GTU —would mean 100 members who support/promote the airport — pitched proposal in front of airport board a year ago and no traction (has been 3 year process). Outside of economic downtown, people are already leaving, could be 2 -5 years to turn around. Don't want to put money into the airport and then have the airport close. • Fuel sales are the lifeblood for everyone — what's causing fuel sales to go down? Market leaving — if can't afford hangar; also fuel cost is a real factor when deciding where to fuel. People fly away from Lakeway to refuel elsewhere because it's $1.25 more. Guessing GTU is losing 25 %. GTU is higher Lano, Burnett, Taylor, Colleen. Pilot comments that wouldn't stop for fuel elsewhere unless major difference or shorter rec flying, but not after long legs. o Since Sarah's been running fuel, it's been reasonably competitive o Fuel compare to ops: • FY 2011: 230,661 AvGas; 534,458 gal Jet • FY 2012: 228,284 gal AvGas; 354,108 gal Jet o Austin Exec probably took some fuel from longer runway since exec. jets are down overall • Are fuel sales down compared to operations? Economic times vs. market movement — check difference • Lose traffic when runway is wet occasionally • Citation X moved to Exec. for longer runway — lost 115gaI jet fuel per tank. • Exec. full -blown operation — same operator who opened Houston Executive • EAA would like to establish home -base in GTU, would mean: o Classroom environment for FAA courses would be nice, if had that, would increase traffic and jet o Monthly breakfast or lunch fly -in would come with a Chapter; some go weekly o Young Eagle events once a quarter would also be nice; McGregor Airport by Waco supports this o Stemmed outflow of members and have regained some — picking up again o Chapter in Waco has their own hangar and kitchen (most chapters have this); o Just need shared space — would like to ideally offer safety seminars, welding classes, etc., o At GTU have been looking at a few spaces, but most have been turned down. Ideally need a hangar (or multi - purpose building) to work on projects. o Ramp access for parking aircraft and walking to classroom area • Static displays instead of air shows lose money — concerned about what the City is spending its money on and not getting return on investment • Financial detail — it's not clear to the airport manager that allocated cost is truly a reflection of what's happening on -site. Need more transparency in operation between the City and the airport. o Agreed to metrics between the City and the airport manager — measure KPI's; have metrics to show City how airport is doing, and how city is doing compared to airport o Pick the ones that reflect a strong airport vision (what are the measurements for whether the airport is on track with economic development) • Real prospect of getting runway extension? Would City Council approve it? Need runway extension to support jet operations. o Others think "we need to learn to live with 5,000' runway" • Chances of supporting air show in future? Consensus is slim to none. Instead, look into lighted aircraft shows, or other options that are not full - fledged air shows. o Bottom line is need things which promote the airport positively in the community • Need to attract more commercial development and investment to make use of this asset o Can benefit considerably through PPP o Texas is leading the way for transportation in P3's o True P3 model is available in state legislature as of last year • City planning around airports — where houses are not around the airport; need good examples of land use guidelines /avigation easements. • Lot of people are chomping at the bit — build it and then they'll come. • Point out building /growth in past few years: new t -hrs near tower, new FBO, Longhorn hangar — all in past 3 years. There is a lot of latent demand. o City is horrendous to work with on building permits, and expensive. • Frame up development opportunity to get council's attention: community side — parks, community, schools, development and investment, quality of life, regionality, business activity (high -tech business growth — data centers, technology, etc.), other opportunities: o City doesn't see impact of small closures o Major traffic surges during game days: • Bergstrom on a game day is packed (UT, TX Tech, A &M, parent every few weeks visiting local colleges) • 15 -20 planes added during football game days, Austin 60 -70 turbines o F -1 traffic increases • City has approved ads in F1 book for next year o Nov 16th is the first one o Monoco GP and Superbeast ?? 3 world class events coming in next year. o Use Winston as example of what's new to the airport and part of the vision • Airport Board is dysfunctional — bylaws are not being followed, completely new board (7 members with 1 carry- over), 3 meetings in 8 months o Live outside of ETJ, can't be a part of Board, regardless of involvement at the airport and investment o When questioned budgets, no longer involved in seeing the budgets o Nothing is accomplished at board meetings o Should have say to city council MEETING NOTES CH2MHILL® Georgetown Municipal Airport Business Analysis - Meeting with Airport Tenants PROJECT NUMBER: MEETING DATE: MEETING TIME: VENUE: Meeting Notes Sarah Hinton, Airport Manager Chip Snowden, Project Director Richard McConnell, Project Manager 461420 January 21, 2013 4:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m. GTU Airport Terminal Building 8. Goals and objectives: • Present guiding assumptions for business analysis • Provide update on analysis to date • Obtain comments from airport tenants 9. Tenant comments: • Strong public participation in airport events. 10,000 attended Easter Egg Drop, 7,000 attended Airfest, 1,000 per year get airport tours. • City Council holds an anti - airport climate. This is the third or fourth time the airport has gone through this type of business analysis. Politically charged environment. General misunderstanding of how airport is handled. • Leases are a problem. • Need to get TXDOT more involved in improving the airport. • Airport can be self sustaining if City Hall would not be constantly fighting it. • Problems with the City permitting and approval process. Takes too long. • Fuel pricing is a concern. • Airport has Fortune companies as customers on a regular basis. Fortune 1000 nine times a week, Fortune 500 four times a week, and fortune 100 two times a week. • City could work more smoothly when working with prospective new businesses.