Council approves firm to build rental car hub

International Airport is a step closer to joining the ranks of big-city airfields by adding a consolidated rental car facility.

The City Council on Thursday selected New York-based Turner Construction Co. to build the facility, known as a “CONRAC,” and set a “not-to-exceed” price of $105 million.

City officials expect the facility to open in January 2017.

As it now stands, rental car companies are scattered around the airport's periphery, which requires travelers take shuttle buses off-site.

The CONRAC will gather companies in a single structure that will include a customer service and ticketing area, facilities for fueling and washing rentals, a ready/return area and other “amenities,” city officials and public records say.

The project is funded by a daily $4.50 tax assessed on vehicles rented from airport facilities. Turner, which operates a San Antonio office, has constructed CONRACs in Seattle, Miami and Indianapolis.

The planned CONRAC here will be easily accessible from both Terminals A and B, as well as a future Terminal C, Mayor Julián Castro said.

“These things usually work well, particularly those that are close to the airport,” Castro said, noting that a shuttle service wouldn't be required to travel between the terminals and the CONRAC.

Frank Miller, the city's director of aviation, told the council the CONRAC will make traveling easier for San Antonio's visitors.

“It places the CONRAC across from the terminal buildings, it eliminates the need for a shuttle operation, and vastly improves the customer service level we have at the airport,” he said.

jbaugh@express-news.net