Lansing airport to get $13 million expansion

DEWITT TWP. — Capital Region International Airport is starting a $13 million cargo ramp expansion.

It could lead to more large planes along with additional business shipments to and from Lansing, airport officials and a congressional delegation said Tuesday at an event announcing the expansion.

The construction should bring about 35 short-term jobs and is estimated to create around 200 long-term jobs as the airport handles more cargo volume.

If you've ever seen a hulking UPS airplane waiting to be loaded or unloaded, that's the cargo area of the airport and the expansion will add seven football fields worth of concrete to the airport's footprint. Eventually, warehouse and other logistic space could be added so planes can load up and offload quicker.

"We don't have that many aircraft, we have to turn them quickly and so we chose Lansing," said Matt Szukalowski, UPS customer experience manager for the Great Lakes area.

UPS serves 42 distribution centers in Michigan and 26 of them get packages from Lansing, he said.

"The economic impact is huge," he said. "It's incredibly efficient and organized."

UPS currently gets priority for space for shipping but there are many other companies that can't always be accommodated, said Nicole Noll-Williams, president and CEO of the Capital Regional Airport Authority, which oversees the airport along with Port Lansing and the Mason Jewett Airport. Being able accommodate other companies will make Lansing a more attractive place for them to do business, she said.

The airport currently doesn't have enough space for all the companies that want to move cargo at some times of the year, especially in the first and fourth quarters, and this would give enough room, said Noll-Williams.

The money is coming from $8 million in federal funding along with state money and local matches, said John Shaski, chair of the airport’s board.

The airport currently handles around 63 million pounds of cargo a year. The expansion would increase the concrete for the cargo area by two-thirds, allowing for warehouses that would unload the shipments and more space for more planes.

Noll-Williams said the work for the cargo expansion dates back more than 15 years to her predecessor, Robert Selig. She credits several steps, including the 2008 designation of the airport as a federal customs inspection area. Lansing is the only airport in Michigan aside from Detroit to be able to take international shipments through customs. That was followed in 2012 by the creation of Port Lansing, an inland port handling rail, road and airplane cargo shipments adjacent to the airport.

A 47-acre plot of the airport is being upgraded with a $3.6 million federal grant. Officials will use the money to help run utilities to the site that would be next to the Port Lansing warehouse. That 47 acres directly faces the new cargo ramp area.

"There's no more important driver in an area than an airport," said U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, a metro Detroit Democrat who attended Tuesday's event.

One of the airport's longest boosters, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, said she wants to see the airport continue to grow with developments into neighboring areas and a future additional terminal.

Stabenow has been supporting the airport for around 50 years, from her early days as a local official, and has been joined by Peters, said U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Lansing. She joked that a future terminal should be called the Stabenow Terminal.

The senator, who has said she will retire and won't seek reelection in 2024, later laughed and demurred on whether she'd like to see her name on a terminal.

Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing airport to get federally-backed $13 million expansion