Cleveland Hopkins International Airport

Region hopes to make most of airport
By Kevin Kelley
Westshore
Published March 3, 2010

Are the communities surrounding Cleveland Hopkins Airport taking full advantage of their proximity to the transportation center?

A study by Cleveland State University’s Center For Public Management is looking at the question. The city of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have respectively pledged $40,000 and $20,000 for the study. Berea and Parma each contributed $1,500. Other nearby suburbs, including Fairview Park, are also involved in the process.

The study builds on the work of John D. Kasarda, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Kasarda, who has published more than 100 articles and nine books on airport cities, aviation infrastructure, economic development and competitiveness, is considered the leading developer of the aerotropolis concept.

According to Kasarda’s Web site — aerotropolis.com — an aerotropolis consists of “an airport city and outlying corridors and clusters of aviation-linked businesses and associated residential development.”

The growth of major airports and associated commercial businesses are making them powerful engines of local economic development, Kasarda argues.

“As more and more aviation-oriented businesses are being drawn to airport cities and along transportation corridors radiating from them, a new urban form is emerging — the Aerotropolis — stretching up to 20 miles (30 kilometers) outward from some airports,” Kasarda writes on his Web site. “Analogous in shape to the traditional metropolis made up of a central city and its rings of commuter-heavy suburbs, the aerotropolis consists of an airport city and outlying corridors and clusters of aviation-linked businesses and associated residential development.”

The Cleveland State aerotropolis study will examine how Hopkins Airport can attract aviationrelated business, such as freight and shipping companies, to the region. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Officials at Hopkins have taken notice of the trend.

“Aerotropolises are beginning to emerge around airports across the country in part because of the economic global reach airports have,” Cleveland Airport Director Ricky Smith said.

Detroit and Memphis are just two U.S. cities building on the aerotropolis concept.

“The impact can be dramatic” on a region, said Kevin E. O’Brien, director of CSU’s Center For Public Management.

O’Brien told West Life the local aerotropolis study should be completed by the end of March.

“The information is flowing well,” O’Brien said. “The issue is how do we position the information to understand the feasibility of an aerotropolis.”

When asked if the Hopkins aerotropolis concept is a marketing program or an economic development program, O’Brien replied, “It’s a little bit of everything.”

The next step after the study, O’Brien said, is for the study partners to determine if an aerotropolis plan is feasible and if they can support the strategy required to implement it.

Those conducting the CSU study and officials from Hopkins have been holding a series of stakeholder meetings in recent months to get input on the potential for an aviation-focused business region near the airport.

Fairview Park Economic Development Director Jim Kennedy, who attended a recent stakeholder meeting, said the aerotropolis concept is another potential economic development tool.

“We’ve bought into the concept from the very beginning,” Kennedy said.

The aerotropolis concept could, over time, assist in the redevelopment of the Brookpark Road corridor, Kennedy said.

“Business people like to be in close proximity to freeways and airports,” Kennedy noted.

One question the aerotropolis concept presents, Kennedy said, is the classic chicken-and-the-egg question. That is, does Hopkins need to make additional investments first to spur the development of an aerotropolis, or do Cleveland and the surrounding communities encourage development of complementary businesses that would draw more activity to Hopkins.

Kennedy said one freight operator at the stakeholders meeting said relatively little freight flies out of Hopkins due to size and capacity issues.

Rosann Jones, director of economic development for Olmsted Falls, has also been involved in the aerotropolis discussions. She said the CSU study needs to determine what needs to change and how the surrounding area can benefit.

One potential beneficiary of the aerotropolis concept, Jones said, is the 350-acre Joint Economic Development District Olmsted Falls shares with Olmsted Township. The still-vacant land has been the subject of discussion for over a decade.

Olmsted Falls may participate in future aerotropolis marketing programs, Jones said. But any concrete benefits to the city remain unclear at this point, she said.

“I really don’t know how this is going to look for Olmsted Falls, given that we are not on the immediate perimeter of the airport,” she said.

On the Web:

• Cleveland Hopkins Airport
• CSU's Center For Public Management
• Aerotropolis.com