PointsSouth: Articles 2007

For years, the green bench outside of the Bay Air office building has been the only spot at Albert Whitted Municipal Airport to sit and watch planes fly by. Its green paint gleams beneath the open sky on sunny days. The enamel is scratched and chipped from years of wear.

But aside from this bench, perched upon a concrete slab, visitors have found little to welcome them at the airport, which serves as home to a fleet of 183 small private and business planes.

That will change by the end of this summer, when the airport opens a new terminal building with an observation deck. It also will include retail and office space, a restaurant and a conference room.

The new building is one of a series of projects set to modernize the 80-year-old airport. Planned changes to the airport grew out of the 2003 general election, when 77 percent of St. Petersburg voters decided to keep the airport in operation, rather than cede the property to the city for a waterfront park and development.

The vote put an end to a debate that is older than the airport itself: historic preservation or development? With Albert Whitted's future intact, airport officials now hope to make the airport relevant beyond its history and small membership.

"One of the issues that came up during the election was this certain stigma that the airport was only for the people who fly," said Richard Lesniak, airport manager. "We tried to find ways the airport could be made more for the community."

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, who originally supported the airport's closure, said the new facilities are an improvement.

"I think the airport will be more accessible to the average person," he said.

In addition to the terminal, a new waterfront park will open in the fall featuring aviation-themed playground equipment, observation decks and an outdoor timeline of the airport's history. Planning has begun for a new control tower to be completed in 2009. The airport relocated four helipads, renovated several rusty hangars and added new runway signs last year.

The $4 million terminal building was funded with a grant for $3.2 million from the city Department of Transportation & Parking. St. Petersburg resident and retired bond executive John Galbraith donated $400,000, which was matched by the city.

The construction projects came from recommendations made by the Albert Whitted Airport Blue Ribbon Advisory Task Force Committee, a group formed by the mayor and city council after the election in 2003.

"I wanted a larger segment of the population to use the airport," said Ed Montanari, chairman of the committee. "That's why we recommended the restaurant and park and observation decks. I think a lot more people are going to go down there than they used to."

The terminal will join a number of neighbors along the waterfront just north of downtown St. Petersburg, including the Salvador Dali Museum, Mahaffey Theater and the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Airport officials hope the growing downtown will help lure other business to Whitted.

According to Lesniak, the airport is in talks with DayJet, an "air taxi" service. A fast, light new jet, the Eclipse 500, makes the service possible -- and holds new hope for small airports. After years of development, DayJet expects to launch a fleet this year.

"Once these start rolling out into the industry, you'll see a lot more corporations and business people coming to the airport," Lesniak said.

DayJet sells by the seat like an airline, rather than by the hour per plane, dropping travelers off at various regional locations depending on each passenger's needs.

"The benefits are that you'd travel closer to home and you'd do it on your schedule," said Chris Dancy of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. "It's too early to say how services like DayJet are going to effect the aviation industry, but it’s potentially very good for smaller airports throughout the country."

As a small airport used mainly for privately owned or business-operated airplanes, Albert Whitted has often faced difficulties. Developers covet the airport's waterfront property, and some city officials and residents question the necessity of the airport itself.

Still, long-time residents like Bill McMannis, 90, who grew up with Albert Whitted, view the airport as a core part of St. Petersburg's history and personality.

As a child, McMannis visited the airport often. He witnessed the arrival of the Goodyear Blimp in the late 1930s. With aspirations to become a pilot, McMannis flew for the Army Air Forces during World War II. But the ravages of war took a toll on his passion.

"When he came home from the war he told me he'd never fly another plane as long as he lived," said Kay McMannis, 87, of her husband, who went to work for Florida Power Company after he returned.

Then, one day 25 years later, Kay heard a radio advertisement for free plane rides at Albert Whitted. She had never flown and it sounded fun. She went the next day.

"I was hooked with the first ride," she said. "The next day I went back to the airport for my first instruction."

Each day Kay climbed into the cockpit, Bill McMannis waited on the green bench outside of Bay Air.

"I used to sit on there all the time," he said. "Sit on the bench and worry, I mean."

But McMannis grew restless. Soon he abandoned his post at the bench and began flying again.

That bench may be the last of the green benches that McMannis remembers from his childhood. They lined the streets of St. Petersburg as early as 1935.
 
"Back after World War II they decided we were too big of a fuddy-duddy town and they got rid of 'em," McMannis said. "We were going to become a modern town."

But the green bench at Albert Whitted remains. As updated facilities bring more people and business to Albert Whitted than ever before, the bench will become more than a place to remember the city's past. It will become a place to watch its future.