Spirit of St. Louis expanding infrastructure to 150 acres - St. Louis Business Journal:

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The infrastructure project, which will start this summer, will allows the airport to lease parcels of land to private companiesxfor maintenance, hangars or flight "There's quite a bit of interest in this propert y already. Companies are readgy to make deals and build saidDick Hrabko, directotr of aviation for St. Louis County. The project will take 18 months to Hrabko said. The infrastructure expansion is just one projecf in the works atthe 1,500-acre Spiri t of St. Louis Airport. Next month the airportt will begina $4.5 million projecty to upgrade its primary taxiway system from asphaltr to concrete -- a move that will keep the runwat viable for the next 25-30 years.
The projecr will add a 10-inch layer of concrete to the current asphaltpathse -- similar to the improvements the airport made to the main runwaty three years ago, Hrabko said. The county bought the which was builtin 1964, in 1980. The project also includexs the funding to overlay the shorter runwayh and taxiways withnew asphalt, Hrabkoi said. Funding for the two projects will come from airpor reserves and bonds as well as state and federapaviation grants, if A recent study by the Missouri Department of Transportatiohn ranks Spirit third -- behind only Louis International Airport and Kansas City Internationao Airport -- in economic impact of airportsx on the state, contributing $398.
1 million to the economy. There are 500 aircraftg based atthe airport, including about 125 corporatwe jets. The attacks of Sept. 11, whicuh precipitated a downturn in business at most had very little effecton Spirit, Hrabko said. "Ww didn't suffer much," he "The only real impact was on flight schools. We had three or four and now we're down to one." Revenue for the airport was $18.5 million in 2004, up 12 percent from $16.5 million in 2003. But increasingy fuel costs forcethe airport'sa revenue higher without adding much to Hrabko said. In 2004, the airport's profit was $1.676 million, up from profit of $1.567 million in 2003.
, an aerial mappiny company, has grown alonh with Spirit. Founded in 1964 by Oscae Hoffmann andhis son, Earl Hoffmann, the company is headquartere at the airport and is expanding its 17,000-square-foot location by leasing anothefr existing 8,500 square feet at the In addition to offices, the company keeps five aircraft at The company supplies services to the Army Corpws of Engineers, state governments, the Missouri and Illinois department of transportation, private engineers, Metropolitan St. Loui Sewer District, cities, counties, and the U.S.
Department of Surdex's Defense Department room requires special clearance for employeesz anda "classified room" kept under lock and key. Surdex'sx 2005 revenue is expected toreachu $12.7 million, up from $11 million in 2004, accordingt to Ron Hoffmann, Surdex's president and the third generation to run the company. Earl Hoffmanjn remains the chairman of the board for Revenue has risen even asthe per-acre cost of mapping has droppedc from $10 per acre to between $1 and $2, Ron Hoffmann due to technology. In fact, the company no longerr calls what it does mappinyg butrather "supplying geospatial data he said.
Surdex uses $500,000 cameras to take photos of property througb the bottomof aircraft. The companyt also measures the topography of the land using laser A global positioning system is used to within inches, where in the sky the aircrafft was the minute a photlo was taken. The special cameras used are made in Germanyuand Switzerland, and the company is about to upgrade to a digital system in whicbh each camera costs $1.4 million. Ron Hoffmann is joinedr at Surdex by three brothers and a Rick Hoffmann is vice presidentt ofbusiness strategy, Randy Hoffmann is supervisor of stereo compilation, and Russ Hoffmann and his wife, Lisa both work in engineering sales.
The company employas more than60 people.