Aerotropolis: Still waiting for takeoff after 13 years

Whatever happened to the grandiose vision of a so-called "aerotropolis" district, stretching 10 miles between Detroit Metro and Willow Run airports, attracting $10-billion in business investment and 64,000 new jobs to southeast Michigan?

Let's put this charitably and call it a dream unfulfilled -- but not yet dead -- 13 years after the mile-long McNamara Terminal in 2002 opened to a chorus of praise. The new terminal sparked lots of talk and hope and studies predicting that Detroit's modern airport complex would usher in a new wave of economic growth from logistics and global trade.

Along the way, aerotropolis got a new name, VantagePort, and a nice package of state-approved tax breaks and other goodies that cities and townships in Wayne and Washtenaw counties can use to lure new employers to town.

Alas, most of the promise has come to naught for a slew of reasons: poor leadership, political scandal and dysfunction, a nasty recession and a bad bet on horse racing.

Yet despite these stumbles, a cadre of true believers insist that the vision is sound and that a few big wins for VantagePort might be just around the corner.

Optimists include Joe Nardone and Tom Naughton, the development director and CEO of the Wayne County Airport Authority, respectively.

And Doug Rothwell, president of Business Leaders for Michigan (BLM), remains convinced that "the data is on our side" -- Metro Airport remains one of Michigan's greatest assets and that logistics and supply chain is one of a half-dozen high promise sectors for major growth in the state.

That said, a series of frustrations has plagued VantagePort, where BLM is a partner with a seat on the governing board.

"One has been inability to hire and keep a leader who eats, sleeps and breathes the marketing of the story and the preparation of properties," Rothwell said. "A small budget, around $400,000, is part of that.

"And the political instability," he added, referring to the controversy of former Wayne County and airport executive Turkia Mullin and the dysfunctional final years in office of former Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, who was a big cheerleader for the aerotropolis concept and creation of VantagePort.

Failure to materialize

Back in 2003, just a year after the McNamara Terminal opened, Ficano was touting the aerotropolis concept for Detroit, proposing 25,000 acres for development of what he then called Pinnacle Park. And in 2004, he was pitching a smaller version of Pinnacle Park at the 2004 Airport Cities conference hosted by Detroit.

But those plans never materialized. Instead, in 2008, the Pinnacle name got attached to Ficano's ill-fated gamble on a horse racing track, for which he sold the developer 320 acres of land for $1 and the promise of 1,200 jobs. But Pinnacle race Course was a flop and closed in early 2011.

Tim Keyes, economic development director of the city of Romulus, who served a stint as head of VantagePort in 2013 and 2014, said the grand aerotropolis dream was thwarted in large part by the severity of the 2008-09 recession, which depressed property values for the next five years in western Wayne County.

After Keyes returned to Romulus, Nardone took the reins on an interim basis at VantagePort, on loan from his days job as the airport's development director.

Both Nardone and Keyes said there has been a recent uptick in investor interest in the VantagePort area. "There are three really significant opportunities to land big deals there right now, all in the logistics area," Keyes said last week.

Naughton and Rothwell say the VantagePort board will soon begin a new search for a VantagePort director.

Overall, Naughton said the best thing the airport can do to help Michigan's economy is "to grow air service."

Detroit Metro is already Delta's second largest hub and its gateway to Asia, with more direct flights to fast-growing markets there than any other airline. "We want to go direct to Munich too, and to India, and have more flights to the Middle East," he said.

So how do VantagePort, as a southeast Michigan consortium, and Michigan as a state, accelerate activity in bringing more logistics firms here and growing the region's leadership in supply chain and advanced technologies.

"The airport itself is not instigator of logistics deals," said Naughton, "but we must make sure we have sites ready when those kind of companies come in to look around."

To that end, he noted, demolition work is stepped up to clear up areas for future development at Metro and Willow Run airports. A half-dozen such projects are under way at Metro, at a combined cost of more than $10 million.

Rothwell noted that even in the absence of a full-time CEO at VantagePort, several deals in the past few years have added total of more than 1,000 jobs for a new auto parts plant, a retail distribution warehouse, a steel plant and an aviation research expansion. "That's just the market at work, without much promotion," he said.

Another need is more funding for marketing and attendance at national and international conferences in logistics and other key sectors, because other states and major cities are competing vigorously to attract the well-paying jobs in those industry.

To that end, the Michigan Economic Development Corp., supporting a push by Gov. Rick Snyder to grow Michigan as a center for logistics and supply chain investments, commissioned a study from Parsons Brinckerhoff early in 2014 on how to do so. Peter Anastor, MEDC managing director for logistics, supply chain and manufacturing, said that study is now being reviewed by various stakeholders around the state and recommendations should be forthcoming in the next few months.

Let's hope they spur more action quickly. This dream of an aerotropolis, or VantagePort, or whatever we want to call it, is an enticing one. But after 13 years of waiting, it seems like time for takeoff.

Contact Tom Walsh: twalsh@freepress.com, also follow him on Twitter @TomWalsh_freep.

Timeline for aerotropolis/VantagePort

2002: Opening of new McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metro Airport heralds talk of an "aerotropolis" boom of logistics and related investment and jobs nearby.

2003: Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano talks up the aerotropolis idea at a Pittsburgh conference on airport cities.

2004: Detroit hosts the annual Airport Cities conference; still more talk.

2007: Aviation consultant Michael Boyd of Colorado talks about Detroit "as a global portal portal connecting air traffic hubs around the world"

2007: Executives from Wayne County, Business Leaders for Michigan, MEDC, Detroit Regional Chamber take fact-finding trip to check out development efforts at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

2008: Not exactly a logistics play, Pinnacle Race Course opens on 32 acres inside aerotropolis footprint.

2010: Michigan Legislature approves tax breaks to spur investment in Wayne County aerotropolis and other development zones.

2011: Horse racing a flop; Pinnacle shuts down.

2011: Ficano's administration engulfed in controversy over $200,000 severance payment to airport director Turkia Mullin. Investigations follow; Ficano never recovers and loses reelection bid in 2014.

2013: Aerotropolis rebranded as VantagePort; Tim Keyes named CEO

2014: Keyes returns to former job as Romulus economic development chief; Joe Nardone, on loan from Wayne County Airport Authority, becomes interim CEO of VantagePort until end of year.

2015: VantagePort expects to launch search for a new top officer soon.