"Rockford will never be O'Hare, but what we envision is thatwe're kind of a relief house," Eric Voyles, VP of national businessdevelopment for the Rockford Area Economic Development Council,tells GlobeSt.com. "There's a lot of interest in continuing to growopportunities at O'Hare, but at the same time, O'Hare has a lot ofgrowth issues they're trying to work through. We offer companies anopportunity to grow in the Chicago market without having to dealwith the cumbersome nature and uncertainty of the planned expansionat O'Hare. We have the capacity now to serve any airplane that'sflying."

Voyles says operating through Rockford can save company bothtime and money. He says the average taxi time at O'Hare is around15 minutes, while it takes that long at Rockford for a plane tocommit to land, land and taxi. "We're talking about hours or 15minutes," Voyles says. "When you talk about the costs of operatingan airplane, what is the true savings of operating out of Rockfordrather than O'Hare?"

Tandem principal Paul Ahern says space at the Rockford facilityin development will cost about half of comparable space at O'Hare.Asking lease rates for the space will be around $10 per sf, net,Ahern says. "The air cargo business is going through a lot ofturmoil with the rise in fuel prices," Ahern says. "We are reallythe low-cost alternative in this sector and we're hoping we canattract business that way. There's been a lot of interest in thisproject."