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The infrastructure project, whicu will start this summer, will allow the airporg to lease parcels of land to private companiesxfor maintenance, hangars or flight "There's quite a bit of interest in this property already. Companies are ready to make deals andbuile there," said Dick Hrabko, directodr of aviation for St. Louiss County. The project will take 18 months to Hrabko said. The infrastructurwe expansion is just one project in the workd atthe 1,500-acre Spirity of St. Louis Airport. Next month the airport will begina $4.
5 milliobn project to upgrade its primargy taxiway system from asphalt to concrete -- a move that will keep the runwayy viable for the next 25-30 The project will add a 10-incy layer of concrete to the curren t asphalt paths -- similar to the improvements the airporrt made to the main runwayg three years ago, Hrabko said. The countyy bought the airport, which was built in 1964, in 1980. The projectf also includes the funding to overlay the shortefr runway and taxiways withnew asphalt, Hrabko said. Funding for the two projectss will come from airport reserves and bondz as well as state and federalaviatiohn grants, if approved.
A recent study by the Missourio Department of Transportation ranks Spirittthird -- behind only Lambert-St. Louis Internationalk Airport and Kansas City InternationalAirporg -- in economic impact of airportz on the state, contributing $398.1 million to the economy. Therew are 500 aircraft based at the including about 125corporatse jets. The attacks of 11, which precipitated a downturn in business atmost airports, had very littlde effect on Spirit, Hrabko said. "We didn' suffer much," he said. "The only real impacty was on flight schools. We had three or four and now we'rde down to one." Revenue for the airport was $18. 5 million in 2004, up 12 percent from $16.
5 million in 2003. But increasingb fuel costs forcethe airport's revenue higher without adding much to profit, Hrabkop said. In 2004, the airport's profiy was $1.67 million, up from profit of $1.5 6 million in 2003. , an aerial mappinf company, has grown along with Founded in 1964 by Oscar Hoffmann andhis son, Earl the company is headquartered at the airport and is expandingg its 17,000-square-foot location by leasing another existing 8,500 square feet at the airport. In addition to offices, the company keeps five aircraftat Spirit.
The company suppliese services to the Army Corps of Engineers, state governments, the Missourik and Illinois departments of transportation, private engineers, Metropolitanm St. Louis Sewer District, cities, counties, and the U.S. Departmentt of Defense. Surdex's Defense Department room requires special clearancre for employees anda "classified room" kept undere lock and key. Surdex's 2005 revenue is expecteed toreach $12.
7 million, up from $11 million in according to Ron Hoffmann, Surdex's president and the third generationn to run the Earl Hoffmann remains the chairman of the board for Revenue has risen even as the per-acre cost of mappintg has dropped from $10 per acre to betweeh $1 and $2, Ron Hoffmann due to technology. In fact, the companuy no longer calls what it does mapping but rather "supplying geospatial data sets," he said. Surdexx uses $500,000 cameras to take photo of property through the bottomof aircraft. The company also measurees the topography of the land usinglasefr technology.
A global positioning system is used to within inches, where in the sky the aircraff was the minute a photo was taken. The special cameras used are made in Germany and and the company is aboutf to upgrade to a digital system in which each camerzcosts $1.4 million. Ron Hoffmann is joined at Surded by three brothers and a Rick Hoffmann is vice president ofbusinese strategy, Randy Hoffmann is supervisor of stereo and Russ Hoffmann and his wife, Lisa both work in engineering sales.
The companyt employs more than60
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