Hotel to Be Razed for Parking Lot

By John Nolan Staff Writer

DAYTON — The city has decided to demolish the Dayton International Airport’s hotel to make way for a 750-space parking lot intended to increase parking availability for air travelers and boost revenues for the city-owned airport, Dayton’s aviation director said.

Based on projections that passenger boardings will increase 3 percent annually, the airport will need an additional 2,900 parking spaces by 2016 and 3,700 spaces by 2019, Aviation Director Iftikhar Ahmad said on Thursday, April 10. Unison-Maximus Inc., a consultant to airports around the country, provided the parking projections, Ahmad said.

Passengers already are filling the long-term parking lot to capacity as much as three days a week, he said.

“One, we’re losing revenues, and two, it’s a customer-service issue. People are coming in, and we may not have space for them to park,” he said.

The airport’s passenger boardings in February 2008 increased by 10 percent from the same month in 2007, the administration said Thursday.

The Dayton Airport Hotel’s last day of business is to be Jan. 16. Ahmad said the city plans to seek bids for a project to start in April 2009 that would include demolishing the 38-year-old hotel, creating a parking lot in its space and improving lighting and adding bus shelters to existing parking lots.

Dayton also plans to seek bids by this fall for a $40 million project to build a three-level parking garage where the short-term parking lot is now. Each level would have 700 spaces, Ahmad said.

The planned parking facilities, and other spaces to be created within the next three years or so, will add 3,350 parking spaces to the airport’s 5,280, spokeswoman Marci Wright said.

About one-third of the two-story airport hotel’s 150 rooms are unfit to be rented, Ahmad said.

He hopes to solicit bids for construction of a hotel along the airport access road, he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Revenue potential

The Dayton International Airport hotel generated revenue of about $100,000 in 2005, $76,000 in 2006 and $209,000 in 2007. A 750-space parking lot there with daily rates of $5 could generate about $950,000 a year if it was consistently at 70 percent capacity.

Source: Aviation Director Iftikhar Ahmad

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