If all goes as planned, the airport will soon be home to Page Field Commons, a retail, entertainment and commercial complex on 45 acres of airport land fronting U.S. 41 in Fort Myers. The Lee County Port Authority, which owns and operates Page Field, is leasing out the land in a 30-year agreement with project developers Wasserman Associates of Delaware and Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland.

The first phase of the Commons is a 300,000 square-foot retail and entertainment complex expected to open early next year. The complex is already about 70 percent rented to clients including CarpetMax, Eckerd Drugs, Hallmark Cards, Linens & Things, Old Navy, Pier 1 Imports and Toys R Us. Wasserman and Forest City also hold two 20-year lease options at Page Field Commons for two additional projects, an office building and light industrial complex.

For Page Field, the Commons will be a new source of revenue to pay operational costs. "That is probably the biggest development project with the potential to help the airport," says Lee County Port Authority General Aviation/Facilities Director Peter Modys.

The Commons project is only one among many changes at Page Field. A new management philosophy is turning around the airport, which operated for years in the red.

Military Beginnings

A Fort Myers landmark on U.S. 41, Page Field was built as a military surplus airport and used as a training field for the U.S. Army Air Corps. It was then deeded to Lee County and used as a community airport, a gateway for the ever-increasing numbers of tourists attracted to Southwest Florida.

After the 1978 airline deregulation and consequent boom of big carriers, the airport became too small for Southwest Florida's ever-increasing demands. With the coming of Southwest Florida International airport in 1983, Page Field resigned to being a reliever airport, taking care of smaller air traffic.

Today the airport is the place where corporate, recreational and private aircraft take off, land and roost. About 250 aircraft regularly use the field's 6,400 feet of runway, services and hangar space. The number jumps to more than 350 in winter season. In total, that's about 80 to 90,000 take-offs and landings a year.

Taking Control

Until recently the Port Authority did not own the airport's fixed base operation, or FBO. And without ownership of the FBO, the business end of the operation, the Port Authority could rely only on rent to pay for operational costs - no federal or state funds can be used for such purposes. The result was years of operating $200,000 to $300,000 in the red.

But two years ago, the scene began to change. The Port Authority bought one of Page Field's two FBOs. When the lease of the other expired, the Port Authority became the sole FBO, having the full ability to rent building and hangar space, and provide fuel and aviation services for Page Field clients. Rents generally cost $8.50 per square foot in building space, Modys says, and .15 cents per square foot for land upon which a business may build its own facility and enter into a long-term lease.

The Port Authority is very likely on its way to leasing the 60,000 square-foot building that once served as the airport's main terminal. The Florida Department of Law has signed on for part of the space, where it will develop a regional crime laboratory. The U.S. Coast Guard may lease the remainder.

The Port Authority also bought a 6,000 square-foot building originally used as a terminal for Germans looking to buy Cape Coral real estate. Now the building is rented as office space for small, aviation-related businesses -- 18 thus far. They include a pilot shop, an avionics shop, a flight instruction school (and one that specializes in German instruction), a tourist sightseeing business and an aircraft repair shop. Modys says the offices have sprung more grass roots-types of operations. "That's really our business," he says, "to set the business environment."

The airport is additionally in the midst of on an ongoing capital improvement plan, using federal and state grant money to help offset the expense. Two years ago the runway was resurfaced, and now all parking ramps are to be refurbished in a $4 million project. Modys says he has several other projects - including possibly providing more hangar space -- but they will have to wait because they aren't on top of the Federal Aviation Trust Fund priority list, which determines the order and size of grants for requested projects.

U.S. 41 Staying the Same

The new look -- and outlook -- coming to the airport doesn't appear to be coming to the area of U.S. 41 fronting it. The roadway, undoubtedly one of Lee County's busiest commercial corridors, has been subject of a small amount of criticism for bare medians and rights-of-way and some partially vacant strip-mall properties.

According to the Florida Department of Transportation, which maintains the corridor, there are presently no plans to make road improvements or landscaping. The road already has six lanes, so there is no reason to expand. And there won't be any project to spruce up, representatives say, unless there is some sort of movement from area merchants and/or Lee County to initiate a program.

As for the portion of U.S. 41 south of Page Field - the area now vexing motorists traveling south of the Bell Tower Shops - a current D.O.T. six-laning project from Alico Road to Island Parkway is due for completion at the end of this year. A second part of the project continuing to Daniels Parkway is expected to be completed by the end of next year. After that point, say D.O.T. officials, the project will continue southward from Alico Road.