Parking plan proposed for future SRQ airport growth

With the January opening of Concourse A and the underway wholesale improvements in Concourse B, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport has now turned its focus to outside the passenger terminal. 

Anticipating some 4 million enplanements by 2050, the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Board of Directors at its Jan. 27 workshop received a report from its parking consultant that calculates, at full build-out if needed, 4,400 spaces anchored by a new four-level parking structure atop the current short-term and rental car lots.

The airport currently has 2,700 spaces across its short-term, long-term, shade, remote and satellite lots. The calculation includes boardings only rather than total passenger count, as inbound passengers have either already parked, are being picked up, or are renting cars. 

The plan also includes an increase in rental car parking from 290 spaces to 520.

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Airport staff has worked with the consultant for about a year, beginning with seven long-term options whittled down to two, plus a short-term proposal that includes a parking structure. Three surface lots have opened within the last 14 months to not only expand capacity, but to provide capacity lost to the eventual parking deck construction.

The plan is based, both in the short and long terms, on planning activity level (PAL) “triggers,” according to SRQ President and CEO Rick Piccolo. Those benchmarks will guide his successor — he is retiring this year — and future board members on when to embark on the next phases of the parking master plan.

Besides passenger parking, the plan factors growth in rental car activity and parking spaces needed to accommodate more rental vehicles.

“We have adequate parking right now,” Piccolo said. “The next steps will be based on those planning activity levels, so when you hit a certain level, that's when you need to start increasing your parking. We emphasized to the board that this is a plan that if you're not hitting those numbers, you haven't gone out and spent $150 million on parking that you don't need.”

With current planning activity level as the benchmark — 2.13 million enplanements in 2023 — PAL 2 is set at nearly 2.8 million.

“We think sometime between 2026 and 2030 you'll hit PAL 2, so when you have to pull the trigger.”

According to the plan, that’s when SRQ will need to work toward construction of the parking structure across the airport loop road from the terminal — a four-story deck that would include 2,790 public parking spaces, just more than the airport’s current total parking capacity, plus 940 spaces in the adjacent long-term surface lot. Public parking would be located on levels 2-4, with rental car operations and parking on level 1. 

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The estimated cost of $223.5 million is why those enplanement triggers in advance of the capacity needs are built into the program. With no taxing authority, the SMAA will need time to secure the capital.

“The first thing is going to be putting together a revenue bond issue and having that ready for when the trigger has to be pulled,” Piccolo said. “That takes about a year to put all the documents together to get your bond ratings and to negotiate with the airlines because of our signatory agreements. Then, if in 2026 it's time, the financing will be in place, the bonds can be issued and the concept and its cost will be done.”

Flex plan

Should SRQ continue to expand in accordance with its 2050 master plan, it would add eight more gates to Concourse A and seven more in a new Concourse C for a total buildout of 32 gates to accommodate just more than 4 million enplanements. 

Should that remain on trend, the SMAA will have Phase 2 and 3 options available to either consolidate quick-turn rental car operations immediately west of the garage and shift long-term parking to what is now Rental Car Road to the south, or to keep and expand those functions where they are today.

None of those triggers are anticipated until about 2040, when boardings, according to projections, would be more than 3.3 million.

The intention is to not spend money on more parking until just before it is needed — if it is needed.

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“We want to have a plan, but we want to have enough flexibility so that you don't over build, you don't under build, and you don't pull the trigger too soon or too late,” Piccolo said, Future boards and future management here will have to make those judgments based upon the data.”

That flexibility also accounts for continued advancements in autonomous vehicles that may deliver passengers' return home on their own, particularly when considering a plan that goes out 25 years into the future. 

Vehicle sharing may also be a factor in reducing parking needs. 

“In some cities they have cars in different locations and people basically use them like their own,” Piccolo said. “People might bring a car here and somebody else who leaving the airport may take that car to a hotel and leave it there for someone else to take. There are all those things to consider.”

In addition to more parking, future phases include a second-level roadway between the garage and the terminal that will separate departure drop-offs and arrival pickups. Baggage claim would be moved from its current location into the garage area adjacent to ground transportation and parking. That will free up the current baggage claim area for more ticketing space or some other function. 

“Passengers will be able to walk across from the second level into the parking garage directly, get their bag and then go right to their car,” Piccolo said.