WASHINGTON: US customs facility at the Boca Raton Airport moved forward after a joint agreement was approved, an expected first state grant came through and the federal agency appointed a project manager.
The Boca Raton Airport Authority ensured the progress of the project by approving the joint agreement to design and construct a US Customs and Border Protection General Aviation Facility.
That will allow airport staff to develop technical specs they’ll give the architects, Ricondo & Associates, airport executive director Clara Bennett said after the March 18 meeting in City Hall. Airport staff and that agency and others had a kickoff meeting in Miami and assigned a project manager, she said.
The Florida Department of Transportation had notified the airport about the pending $882,666 grant for 2015, a year earlier than expected, and that has come through, she said. A second grant for more than $600,000 in the 2016 budget is expected.
The engineering, design and construction for the building is estimated to cost $3 million. The authority has already approved that expenditure from its reserve funds, she said.
The preferred site, an undeveloped tract near the Fairfield Inn at 3400 Airport Road, was approved at last October’s authority meeting.
Bennett was reluctant to predict how long this would take, because there are so many variables, she said.
In her update to the authority, Bennett praised “tremendous support” from the Boca Chamber of Commerce in the state capital last month, and a letter of support from Gov. Rick Scott’s staff.
When the possibility of putting customs at the airport surfaced, it was touted as a convenience for airport customers returning from an international flight. Now flights coming to Boca have an interim stop to make nearby, like Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
“Having customs at the airport will reduce the total number of take-offs and landings for all incoming international flights, a huge plus for everyone,” Budd said.
