- September 13, 2024
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Concerns over noise have sparked leaders of the Naples Airport to consider relocating the more than 80-year-old facility — in what would be a complicated, controversial and costly move.
At least one Collier County commissioner is against the idea of an airport move, as are several current tenants. A study, meanwhile — which itself cost nearly $400,000 — says moving the airport, at the top end, would be $1.6 billion and take more than a decade. And that would only happen after many meetings, agreements and zoning approvals.
But now armed with a new study showing potential sites for the move, all of which are outside the city, some members of the Naples Airport Authority say they are looking to elected officials to point the way forward.
“My priority right now is to communicate with the county and with the city, with the leaders that are elected by the people, about whether they’re interested or not interested in us moving," Naples Airport Authority Chair Rick Ruppert said at the board’s Aug. 15 meeting. "We need to take the first step of this marathon if we’re going to pursue this."
The Naples Airport has been in operation since the 1940s, when it was a training base for bomber crews and fighter pilots known as Naples Army Airfield. Today, about 360 aircraft are kept there, and approximately 200,000 passengers flew through in fiscal year 2023. It is home to flight schools, corporate aviation, aircraft charter and sales, air ambulance and civil air patrol. Also based at the airport are the Collier County Sheriff's Office aviation unit, Collier Mosquito Control District, Collier County MedFlight and City of Naples Fire Station #3. No commercial airlines serve the airport.
One Collier County commissioner gave his take — a not really — on a potential move during the public comment portion of the Naples Airport Authority meeting. "The majority that come up to me really don’t want to see the airport move," Collier Commissioner Dan Kowal said, adding he thought the airport may have historic significance.
Part of what prompted the look into moving the airport was a noise study from 2019, which included among its recommendations that officials explore relocation. Long-term growth in Collier County, constraints on the existing property and resiliency of current airport infrastructure were other factors driving the exploratory study, conducted by Environmental Science Associates of San Francisco.
Commissioned in 2023, the exploratory study was released this July and was an agenda item at the Naples Airport Authority's Aug. 15 meeting.
The report identifies four sites where the Naples Airport could possibly move:
One of the criteria for sites was that they encompass 2,400 acres. The current site is 733 acres, most of which are leased from the city of Naples through 2068, the study says.
Kowal was not the only one with reservations about a move, and nobody from the public spoke specifically in support of moving the airport at the meeting.
Michelle Palermo, chief program officer for the Naples-based Conservancy of Southwest Florida, said her office had issues with all the sites except Immokalee Regional Airport.
“Three of the four sites that you have listed are environmentally sensitive areas, and we have concerns,” Palermo told the airport authority, noting an analyst for her environmental advocacy organization was reviewing them.
If any of those three sites were selected, Collier County commissioners would need to rezone the property, according to Kowal. Doing so would require a supermajority of four of five commissioners, which he did not see happening because people “don’t have an appetite to move the airport,” Kowal said.
On the off chance the commissioners did rezone a site for moving the airport, Kowal said it was likely the county would want control, which would take away money from the city.
The Naples Airport generates 5,454 jobs; has a payroll of $261 million; and creates an economic impact of $781 million, according to the Florida Statewide Aviation Economic Impact Study. It does not receive local tax dollars and generates its funds from airport activities as well as federal or state grants from aviation-related user fees.
Currently, the Naples Airport has 340 leases and rental agreements, including 330 aeronautical and 10 non-aeronautical tenants, according to the exploratory study.
A man who identified himself as one of the airport’s largest tenants spoke out against changing locations.
“We do not support moving the airport,” Stephen Myers, executive vice president at Elite Jets, told the Naples Airport Authority.
“It’s really about noise control,” he said of efforts to move the airport, adding that a new noise tracking system and curfew implemented at the Naples Airport as well as advances in technology were alleviating the situation.
A survey of tenants conducted as part of the exploratory study found that nearly 40% said moving the airport would negatively impact their business, while 40% said they were not business owners and about 20% said it would not negatively impact them.
"Relocating the airport would cause me to move my business and family from the area," one respondent said.
"We have invested significantly in capital costs to be located here," another said, adding: "If the airport moved and we weren't able to stay, it would be crippling."
Development of a new airport would take 15 to 20 years, with a general projected opening of 2040, according to the study. It would cost $790 million to $1.6 billion to build, the study shows. Looking at who would pay for the new airport was outside the scope of the report.
The cost of the airport exploratory study was $398,321, according to a spokesperson for the Naples Airport.
Designed to identify potential sites for the airport, the study states the next step would be to conduct a site selection study, then a preliminary financial analysis to determine if the project is financially viable.
Looking for direction on how to proceed, Ruppert and other members of the Naples Airport Authority said they wanted to meet with the Naples City Council and Collier County Commissioners by mid-October.
At the county level, officials said nothing was scheduled yet.
“To this date, the County Manager’s Office has not received a meeting request from the NAA on a potential move of the Naples Municipal Airport, nor direction from the Board of County Commissioners to add an agenda item on the same,” John Mullins, a spokesperson for Collier County government, said in an Aug. 22 email to the Business Observer.
Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann did not respond to a request for comment regarding a potential meeting of the Naples Airport Authority with the City Council.
This story was updated to reflect the correct cost of the exploratory study; the top-end estimate of moving the airport; and the year the noise study was conducted.
