Asheville Regional Airport announced that it will break ground on a five-story parking garage on Oct. 3. The construction of a parking garage is part of the airport's master plan to meet the growing air travel needs in western North Carolina.
"The use of Asheville Regional Airport continues to grow," said Lew Bleiweis, A.A.E., executive director of Asheville Regional Airport. "We have experienced two consecutive record years of passenger service, and 2016 has been another strong year so far. It is time to move forward with our parking garage in order to continue to meet our passengers' needs for years to come."
Passengers have been requesting easy, level and covered walking access from the parking area and the new parking garage will fulfill these requests and enhance the passenger experience. The garage will be located directly in front of the airport's main entrance, and will include a covered walkway from the garage to the terminal. When completed, the garage will hold a total of 1,300 parking spaces, 200 of which will be used for the rental car agencies' ready return service, which will be located on the lowest level of the garage. The long-term lot furthest from the terminal will be closed. The construction project will take approximately twelve months to complete.
During construction, approximately 400 parking spaces will be displaced. Passengers will have several parking options at the airport. First, there will still be numerous spaces in the short and long-term lots available for customer use. Additionally, the credit card lot, located just past the terminal on the right, offers 200 spaces, and a temporary lot with nearly 200 spaces directly across the street from the main entrance will be opened for passenger use. This temporary lot will be a pre-paid lot, and will offer 24/7 shuttle service to and from the terminal curb.
The parking garage is a $22 million project, and capital funding was secured with a general indenture bond. This type of direct placement bond is very similar to a loan, and was contracted directly between the Greater Asheville Regional Airport Authority and Raymond James Capital Funding, Inc., the lending institution. The Airport Authority submitted Requests for Proposals for bond funding earlier in the year, and chose the proposal with the best interest rates and term. The airport is not reliant upon local tax funds to operate the airport, nor for capital funding. The bond is backed by projected revenues that will be generated by the parking garage, including lease and fees generated by the rental car agencies that use the garage.
During the next three weeks, passengers should not park in the footprint of the new parking garage if they plan to leave a car in the lot past Sept. 29, at 5 p.m. The footprint of the new garage will be clearly marked, and signs are now located at the entrance and throughout the parking lot detailing this requirement. Cars that remain in the footprint of the new garage after 5 p.m. on Sept. 29 will need to be towed to a different parking location at the airport so construction may begin.
