Airpark To Rock SD's Freight World

SAN DIEGO—The $1-billion, 331-acre Otay Mesa Metropolitan Airpark project is an "important piece in the puzzle" for diverting general aviation traffic away from Lindbergh Field and toward the new border crossing, Vancouver-based Gibralt's Charles Black tells GlobeSt.com. As we recently reported, Black has been selected to lead the development team overseeing the construction and marketing of the project at Brown Field, which will involve nearly 3 million square feet of new construction, phased over 20 years. We spoke exclusively with Black about the project and its impact on the submarket as well as the rest of San Diego.

GlobeSt.com: How do you envision the Metropolitan Airpark project looking once completed?

Black: There's quite a bit of development potential down there. It's important to the region, its proximity to the international border, there are new ports of entry and there's been a substantial increase in truck transportation across the border—there's a very big light-industrial component to this project and a lot of potential logistics development down there. When you look at just passengers, Rodriguez Airport in Tijuana is about a mile from Brown Field, and it opens up a lot of possibilities for shuttles. The Otay area is very anxious for this project to move forward. It will be a catalyst for potential job creation—preliminary research shows 11,000 proprietorships—there's nothing but possibilities.

What's currently been approved by the city is about 331 acres and substantial jet operations. We're moving forward on design and engineering for that, and there's a considerable amount of infrastructure that we need to install. There's a pretty substantial air-side component for the project: the airport, runways, taxiways, hangars, aviation-related office—there's quite a bit of that for the first phase of the project. The City and FAA are requiring that that gets completed first before the light industrial and other components.

GlobeSt.com: What impact do you think this project will have on the rest of San Diego?

Black: When you think about San Diego and its airport assets, Lindbergh Field is the busiest single-runway airport in the country—it's the second busiest after London's Heathrow. Lindbergh needs to be reserved for commercial aviation, so general aviation and freight ultimately will have to go somewhere else. Brown Field is a reliever airport, and it's an important piece in the puzzle. That's what it means to the region. I'm a long-term San Diegan, and they have been talking about building a nice, new, shiny airport since I was in high school. It's not going to happen. Brown Field is an important piece in that. It's 15 to 20 minutes from Downtown San Diego, and Lindbergh is next to Downtown.

GlobeSt.com: What is the timeline for the project?

Black: We're going to begin work on the infrastructure forthwith late this year or early in 2016. Once the infrastructure is in place, and probably before it's completed, we will begin an aggressive marketing campaign for the light industrial and air-side component. There will be a lot going on down there in the next couple of years.