Naples Airport is planning up to $25.33 million in improvements, including construction of 42 new hangars and a new parking lot along North Road that can be used by hikers and others using the Gordon River Greenway.
Once the South Quadrant plans go through various approvals, construction is slated to begin next summer, and the 30 T-hangars alone are expected to bring in at least $360,000 in annual rental fees for the airport.
“It’s bringing new embellishments throughout North Road using the new landscape plan but also giving the present tenants a new space for aircrafts — and protected space,” Associate Project Manager Marcus Pires, of Hanson Professional Services Inc., told the Naples Airport Authority Dec. 19 during a project update.
The 81-year-old Naples Airport, which began as a military airfield, is located on roughly 1 square mile off Airport-Pulling Road. It’s self-sustaining, uses no taxpayer money, leases most of its 733 acres from Naples for $1 yearly, and its 2025 budget totals $67.35 million. The Florida Department of Transportation says it generates $781 million annually for the area.
The project involves construction of three 10-unit T-hangar buildings and a 12-unit box hangar building that will replace tie-downs and shade hangars used by light aircraft and aging hangars in the airport’s East Quadrant.
Also planned are: drainage and stormwater improvements; a taxiway connector to improve aircraft circulation; a self-fueling and wash rack area; realignment of the service road perimeter; an apron expansion to connect the box hangar building to taxi lanes; a taxi lane connecting runways to the new hangars; driveway and curb-cut access onto North Road; a sidewalk and sidewalk connections; a 38-space lit parking lot: removal of the North Road berm; and new landscaping to improve screening and aesthetics.
Also planned is a pad site area for a future pilot’s lounge that will be completed at a later time.
In addition to project and design engineer Hanson Professional Services, the project team includes Schenkel Schultz Architecture in Estero and Naples-based Urban Green Studio landscape architects.
Current costs are estimated at $22.92 million based on 60% design completion, but the final cost is expected to be $25.33 million, which will be self-funded by airport fees and a $7.5 million Florida Department of Transportation grant. NAA’s cost would be $17.88 million; it was initially budgeted at $16.6 million.
The colors and palette will match the existing North Road terminal, which is now being improved and upgraded, Pires said, adding, “We’re working on getting a new, more quality and better appearance for that North Road-look into the airport — together with bringing more facilities to the existing tenants.”
The buildings will feature shiplap, faux windows with Bahama louvered shutters and white trellises. Naples planning staff noted the embellishments, and proposed landscaping, will provide increased screening along North Road to buffer the airport’s inner workings.
Ken Warriner, NAA senior director of Finance Administration, said the airport is currently charging $805 monthly for its 45-foot hangars, so $1,000 is a reasonable rent for a newer premium space. It would take 38 years to recover costs, which would never be recovered without the FDOT grant. By reducing the scope to the original $16.6 million, he said, they’d recover costs within 19 years with the grant or 52 years without it.
NAA Commissioner Terrence Cavanaugh, who said he’d worked with contractors for 30 years, wanted contractors to understand that the NAA wants to keep costs down.
“I want the construction community to know that there is a price at which point this no longer becomes a viable project,” Cavanaugh said, noting the NAA is viewed as an effectively run authority that has money. “I worry about the fact that sometimes we don’t get the best price, so I want the construction community to recognize that this is not something we have to do.”
NAA commissioners Kerry Dustin and John Crees contended the cost is too high and needs to come down.
But NAA Executive Director Chris Rozansky said contractors are more concerned about taking on a new project on top of how much workload they’re already handling, not what the NAA budgeted for this project
Commissioner Robert Patten Burns noted that Naples City Council doesn’t want more hangars at the airport, but Rozansky pointed out that these hangars have been planned since 2020, and Council saw those plans but were against two other hangars proposed in 2021. Dustin, who believed the proposed hangar rents were too low, suggested looking at the market and asking tenants what they’re willing to pay.
The plans will go before the Naples Design Review Board for preliminary design review Dec. 20. Based on the DRB’s recommendations, the plans would be adjusted before being presented to the NAA in February and would go to DRB for final design review in spring. Construction is expected to start by summer after the NAA approves a construction contract.
