The Akron-Canton Airport has broken ground on a $6.7 million infrastructure project that will build a new aircraft apron on the airport’s west side in Green, the airport announced on Monday, November 2, according to The Canton Repository.
The apron — the paved area where aircraft park, load and maneuver away from the terminal gates — is the kind of unglamorous concrete that decides what an airport can do next. Airport officials say the new west-side infrastructure is expected to help attract up to $20 million in private investment, support more than 50 new full-time jobs and potentially enable the opening of an educational facility, The Canton Repository reported. Market-rate hangar space will also be created as part of the project.
“Today’s groundbreaking is an investment in the future of CAK and Northeast Ohio,” airport president and CEO Ren Camacho said in a prepared statement reported by The Canton Repository.
The $6.7 million price tag is covered by grants and partner contributions rather than airport operating revenue. The Canton Repository reported the funding breaks down as $3.2 million from the state’s one-time strategic fund, $2 million from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, $867,365 from the Timken Foundation, $415,000 from the city of Green and Aqua Ohio, and $250,000 from the Ohio Department of Transportation.
That mix tells its own story about how regional airports get built in Ohio. State agencies put up the bulk of the money, the host city and its water utility partner contributed, and a Canton-based charitable foundation — the Timken Foundation — covered a significant share. It is the same kind of state-local partnership that has funded much of the airport’s recent construction.
The Akron-Canton Airport, known by its code CAK, sits in the city of Green in southern Summit County, within easy reach of both Akron and Canton — the two cities in its name. It is the region’s commercial airport alternative to Cleveland Hopkins, and its recent history has been one of steady capital work: the airport previously completed a $37 million gate modernization that was the final piece of a 10-year, $115 million capital improvement program, according to Airport Improvement magazine.
The west apron project fits that pattern of building capacity before it is needed. New apron space and hangars give the airport room to court private aviation, maintenance and training tenants — the kind of tenants officials say could bring the projected $20 million in private investment and the educational facility mentioned in the announcement.
For Summit and Stark County travelers, the project will not change anything about flying out of CAK in the short term — aprons are airside infrastructure, not terminal work. Its effect, if the projections hold, shows up over years: more hangar tenants, more aviation jobs based in Green, and a stronger case for airlines and private operators considering the airport. The announcement adds to a run of Akron-area investment news, including Bridgestone’s new $3 million training center on its Akron campus and this week’s Akron Early College parade on a new route to Lock 3.
One thing the announcement did not include is a construction timeline. The Canton Repository’s report of the November 2 groundbreaking gave the funding breakdown, the projected private investment and the jobs figure, but no completion date for the apron — a detail travelers and Green residents will be watching for as work begins, since apron construction happens alongside an operating airfield and has to be phased around daily flights.
The scale of the public commitment is worth noting on its own. Between the state strategic fund award, the two state agency contributions, the Timken Foundation grant and the city of Green and Aqua Ohio share, every dollar of the $6.7 million announced Monday comes from a public or philanthropic source, according to the funding list reported by The Canton Repository. The private money in the plan — up to $20 million — is what the finished apron is supposed to unlock, in hangars and facilities built by the tenants the new space attracts.
What happens next is construction on the airport’s west side, followed by the tenant recruitment the new space is meant to support. Airport officials have framed the groundbreaking as the start of that longer play: public money builds the concrete, and private operators decide how much of the projected investment and hiring follows.
Photo: Ken Lund, CC BY-SA
[…] for big-ticket development across the Akron-Canton corridor, where NewsForce247 has covered the Akron-Canton Airport’s $6.7 million west apron project in Green and Bridgestone’s $3 million Bandag training center on its Akron campus in just the past day. […]