Aerotropolis

Business, North Carolina, Jul 01, 2007 by Speizer, Irwin

That was a major blow to the TransPark - and possibly a validation. Kasarda, citing conversations he has had with site-selection consultants, is convinced the TransPark might have won if the state hadn't been so far outbid on incentives. "I was told the consultants recommended the TransPark out of 1,500 airports that put in bids. Boeing would never get that far if there wasn't something there."

Ultimately, an aircraft plant did come to North Carolina but went to Piedmont Triad. Honda, which had opened an aircraft research-and-development center there in 2000, announced in February it would build a HondaJet factory and hire 300. It was a far less ambitious project than Boeing's, but it furthered the Triad's goal of being the state's primary industrial airport.

For the TransPark, these setbacks have been a reality check. The once-lofty goal of becoming a cargo supercenter that attracts multinational corporations has been scaled back. "The original view that we would have eight or 10 or 15 major

Fortune 500 companies lining the runway, making widgets, flying them out, I don't think that is what will happen there," Delia says. "My own view is that smaller to midsize business is probably the place we need to be looking." Darlene Wad-dell, executive director of the Global TransPark Authority, says the aim now is to find companies that might find the TransPark runway useful but would not be put off by limited road and rail access. "We are going to be target-marketing. We have not done that in past. We are going to be marketing to air-freight forwarders, maintenance repair companies, some manufacturing companies."

That sense of resignation contrasts with the bold optimism in the Triad. In mid-June, Kasarda updated a group of the region's business leaders on the airport's future. Once FedEx and Honda complete their operations, he says, employment at the airport will be about 6,000. Other companies that will locate at the airport could triple that number. Across the region, the FedEx hub alone will spawn more than 20,000 jobs within 16 years. Drawn to it will be other logistics service providers, drug companies, semiconductor and computer makers and suppliers of fresh seafood, fruit and flowers.

This will be an aerotropolis, he believes. "It's inexorable. The only question is how it's going to look and function - whether it will be a well-planned and -marketed one or one that springs up haphazardly. Fast-cycle logistics should become the region's new competitive tool. You're not going to differentiate yourself by incentives. But there's only a handful of places that have air-express hubs, and there are even fewer that have them serviced by major interstates."