To successfully market an aerotropolis to the world and your region it is imperative to communicate its value to investors, stakeholders and community leaders. This session gave us examples of the economic impacts that the airport, airport city & aerotropolis have on the region and methods that have been used to successfully communicate those benefits.
Moderator: Terry Clower, Director, Centre of Economic Development and Research, University of North Texas.
Panel:
- Juan Luis Chevalier, CEO, Asia Pacific Development, Panama Corporation.
- John Terrell, Vice President, Commercial Development, Dallas/Fort Worth, International Airport.
- Kim Day, Manager of Aviation, Denver International Airport.
- Kurt Little, Managing Director, Jones Lang LaSalle.
- Chris LeTourneur, President & CEO, MXD Development Strategists.
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Moderator - Terry Clower (TC)
Panel - Juan Luis Chevalier (JLC), John Terrell (JT), Kim Day (KD), Kurt Little (KL), Chris Le Tourneur (CLT)
John Terrell - VP, commercial Development, DFW
In order to communicate aerotropolis benefits you need to have a strategic plan that communicates your vision, and a mission statement.
You can't just start with a communication plan - you have to start with the facts and really dig into what is credible.
From a development perspective the Land Use plan is the strategic plan for DFW.
We're owned by two cities and fall within the municipal boundaries of four other cities, that creates the need for collaboration and first we had to bring them in to discuss the development.
Jones Lang La Salle and many other businesses worked to identify a long-term vision for business growth in the area. This included thinking about things like the number of utilities necessary, the costs involved, how to engage with the communities.
We brought in all of our stakeholders, transportation experts, members from the community, architects, planning etc to discuss ideas, the land use plan and the model.
What came out of that was the development of 14 different districts servicing different needs within the development :
The way you convince surrounding cities and host cities that it is beneficial to develop the airport is to show them the benefit. Taxes are a key driver to this collaboration. The other taxing districts can earn up to half a billion dollars a year at DFW.
http://www.dfwairport.com/landhere/useplan/index.php
Once sorting out the local collaboration we sought to engage the international community. We engaged with the International Economic Development Council to identify the strengths of the region.
Working with our local Chambers who have direct contacts with organisations helps encourage buy-in.
https://twitter.com/ARNMagazine/status/395589612438958083
https://twitter.com/MartyWieder/status/395590281833086976
After all of our studies, we asked what does the airport mean in terms of full economic impact for our region?
**$31.6bn per year is added in economic impact from DFW International to the region.**
DFW has used video to communicate its benefits to a wider audience:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSY_sMxmx50
The success of the airport and the region are inextricably linked. This can only happen through good communication and collaboration.
Kim Day, Manager of aviation, Denver International Airport
I spend a great deal of time speaking with local people about development at the airport. More people are interested in the upcoming pet hotel than the aerotropolis.
They don't yet understand that the pet hotel is part of the aerotropolis. We've spoken to more than 100 stakeholders. What they don't yet realise is that we want to work together to see how we can work together.
https://twitter.com/routesonline/status/395593480715505664
We are working on an issue of non-airport use of the airport roadways. We need to speak with stakeholders to improve the transportation links.
Denver's video gives a warning message to the region if collaboration is not met and outlines the opportunities for the future.
https://twitter.com/DENAirport/status/395596299531452416
Kurt Little, managing director, Jones Lang LaSalle
When working with airports we firstly identify their strengths for the public/private realms.
3 factors to make or break a deal:
- Certainty of occupancy
- Capita/Project appreciation
- Time
Every tenant has different criteria for making their decision of whether to move into an area.
A challenge of creating buy-in for an aerotropolis is being able to communicate the benefits based on the different criteria that are important to them.
Chris LeTourneur - president and CEO, MXD Development Strategists
Audiences can range from regional population base, the communities and airport authorities and also the investors, tenants and end-users that all need to be communicated with.
MXD meets with all the key groups:
- Clients (airports)
- Communities
- Agencies
- Businesses
Part of the deal is to communicate internally with your board to ensure there is understanding throughout.
**The key objectives of an aerotropolis are to increase and improve quality of jobs and investment**
In Belo Horizonte, Brazil MXD helped develop a plan to communicate to 48 municipalities and metropolitan planning agencies; 22 state inter-government agencies; 12 utility companies; thousands of businesses; 7 economic agencies; 3 universities; Millions of residents; and unlimited investors.
We identified target industries as Aerospace, logistics, electronics, bio-life sciences, agri-business > We identified a "corridor of opportunity" > Identified where the target industries would best be located.
We identified a new kind of zoning plan as an economic development zone.
Questions from the audience
How are the relationships going with different communities around Denver International Airport?
KD - We are in discussions with our neighbours at different layers, I'm very optimistic that we will end up as a region taking this forward.
After you bring communities together and you still get pushback from the communities, how do you get the nay-sayers to get on-board?
KD - Identify the small wins you can give the community to let them know that you are listening, you have to be patient. Getting them on this conference would have been great, but it's a matter of time.
What about competing airports that are just outside of your developments - how do you protect their interests?
KL- We have a 100 mile radius and everything inside is very additive to our region. We work together with our outlying airports, we don't have to do anything specific to keep them happy.
CLT - In Belo Horizonte there is a nearby airport that is very dangerous, the planes are close to hitting the buildings, so the logical thing is to shut that down. But with politics it's difficult to do that. In the end the success of an airport will depend on its routes, that will have its effect as Belo Horizonte grows its routes if the other doesn't.
What is the future of cargo?
It's a rapidly changing business, the size and range of planes is evolving. Different dynamics like that require a lot of consideration. There is long-term thinking required.
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