Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is ramping up an effort to find new sources of revenue through a division called ATL Business Ventures.
General Manager Miguel Southwell says the new unit will focus on how best to use land the airport owns just outside its boundaries, as well as what to do with large tracts in Paulding and Dawson counties that once were considered potential second airport sites.
The unit could also develop on-site revenue sources such as new duty-free concessions lines to attract more international flights, Southwell said.
“It’s too important to drive additional revenue,” particularly with a capital program to spend as much as $7 billion over the next 20 years for a new runway, new concourses and other projects, Southwell said.
Such projects are funded primarily with airport business revenue and passenger fees. The city of Atlanta owns Hartsfield-Jackson but airport revenue by federal law cannot be diverted to city use.
The airport created a new position to lead ATL Business Ventures and hired Cortez Carter, a former executive from Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway airports.
Carter was managing deputy commissioner with the Chicago Department of Aviation, and more recently was an executive at concessionaire SSP.
Southwell said Carter’s responsibilities will include looking at “non-traditional real estate development” and considering “how to take dormant assets and turn them into revenue-producing assets.”
The airport is in the process of contracting with a consulting firm for a plan for about 500 acres it owns around the airport, 10,000 acres in Dawson County and 9,400 acres in Paulding. Three firms are competing: Jones Lang LaSalle, Avison Young and The Collaborative Firm.
Hartsfield-Jackson also hired a new assistant general manager of planning, Frank Rucker, to replace Jim Drinkard, a longtime manager who has retired. Rucker, who will oversee capital projects, is a former engineering director at the Atlanta airport and more recently worked in airport planning in the United Arab Emirates.
“He has a reputation for getting things done on time and on budget,” Southwell said.
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