Construction is expected to begin in late October on a new $3.5 million terminal for the Williston Municipal Airport.
While the small airport does not expect to see regularly scheduled passenger service, officials there say the new terminal will attract visitors to the airport, which will bring in revenue to further expand Williston's business.
“We’re really excited about it,” said Benton Stegall, the airport manager. “We’ve done a lot of planning and preparation, so it should be a great addition to the airport.”
The new 4,600-square-foot terminal will include a lobby, an upstairs mezzanine observation deck, offices, a conference room, a pilots’ lounge, a maintenance shop and a break room for the operations team.
“There’s a lot of people who love watching airplanes, so we figured we’d try to incorporate that into this new facility,” Stegall said. “And that’s what that mezzanine does.”
The upstairs mezzanine will allow visitors to enjoy a view of the runways from the second floor in the comfort of an air-conditioned space. According to Stegall, many visitors sit on the airport’s porch to watch incoming and outgoing flights, so this addition will allow them to escape the Florida heat.
Many of the airport’s visitors, Stegall said, are children and veterans. The mezzanine will include a small lift for visitors who are unable to use the stairs.
“I think this investment is a great thing for our city,” said Williston resident Marie Sanders, 42. “I’d be interested to go see the new terminal once it’s done. I think my kids would like it.”
The operations team at Williston Municipal Airport said it hopes the new terminal will attract attention that helps continue the airport’s growth. The team, currently made up of seven members, works long hours to maintain the nearly 2,000-acre property.
“The new terminal will bring attention, and more attention means more revenue,” said Kelly Hars, the airport supervisor and administrator. “That will help us.”
The current 1,800-square-foot terminal includes a front desk area and a small office that Stegall and Hars share.
“Going from what we have to a whole section of the new building for our operations team will be exciting,” Stegall said.
Most days, between 15 and 20 private airplanes travel through the Williston Municipal Airport. The airport is home to approximately 87 aircraft, including small airplanes and jets. The airport leases land to general aviation owners and private jet owners who build airplane hangars on the property.
“We would like to be a big airport but still have the country feel,” said Dan Jones, the airport operations technician. “This is an old airport, but the runways are built strong, and we can take just about anything through here that flies.”
The Williston Municipal Airport currently does not serve any commercial airlines and does not have any plans to do so.
“But who knows what the future holds?” Stegall said. “We’re expanding and continuing to build.”
The operations team agreed that working with large businesses would help the airport’s growth but could cause the airport to lose some of its current clientele.
“It would be nice to get someone like Amazon or FedEx based here,” Jones said. “But when you get too many of the big guys, you lose the moms and pops. Those are the people who fly through here on weekends just to grab something to eat and then take off again.”
Hars said the airport’s business with Williston’s mom-and-pop businesses is what helps maintain its small-town charm.
The new terminal project has been in the works since 2018 and is part of the five-year plan required of airports by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
“The FDOT thought it would be a really good investment to put a nice terminal building here to really draw a bigger crowd,” Stegall said.
The project received funding through grants from the Federal Aviation Administration under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These grants can be invested in terminals, runways, taxiways and roadway projects, but according to Stegall, the grant given to the Williston Municipal Airport was specifically to build a new terminal.
Upon unanimous support from Williston City Council members, the Williston Municipal Airport negotiated a full contract with Gray Construction. Passero Associates, the city’s engineering consultation firm, said Gray Construction quoted nearly $300,000 less than its nearest competitor.
Once construction of the terminal is complete, the airport will publicize its status as a regional airport. The airport has already reached regional status but will advertise this with a new entrance sign for the completed terminal.
“It’s a diamond in the rough, but it’s slowly getting polished,” Jones said.