The planned multimillion-dollar upgrade of the passenger terminal at Vero Beach Regional Airport is expected to get under way next month.
City Airport Director Todd Scher said he is hoping to issue a “Notice to Proceed” to Vero Beach-based Proctor Construction “in the next couple of weeks.”
An expansion of the baggage-claim area is one element of a terminal renovation project that includes the construction of permanent, covered, open-air walkways connecting the terminal to the fence line for boarding and deboarding passengers.
The plans also include construction of a permanent covered open-air waiting area for people meeting incoming flights.
In addition, the project will provide a similarly covered outdoor “sterile area” for outgoing passengers who’ve been through their security checks and are waiting to board their flights.
“People will have the option of staying inside, which can get a little crowded, or they can spill over to the outside area,” Scher said. “That area will be expanded, and we’ll install benches and chairs.”
Arriving passengers might most appreciate the new ADA restrooms that will be built along the terminal-exit area – en route to the parking lot – in the former C.J. Cannon’s restaurant banquet rooms.
“They’ll be easy to find,” Scher said.
The airport enhancements, however, will reach beyond the terminal: Scher said the project includes improvements to both the short-term and long-term parking lots.
Installing LED lighting for security, adding left-turn lanes for improved traffic flow and creating a GoLine bus stop are planned for the short-term lot.
The long-term lots, meanwhile, will be expanded to provide an additional 113 paved parking spaces and 40 more spaces in an overflow grass lot. LED lighting will be installed, as will an irrigation system for new landscaping.
Scher said the long-term parking lot project is still in the design phase, but he hopes to see 90-percent plans as soon as next week, which would allow the city to submit the necessary permit applications by the end of the month and begin seeking bids in April.
“We’ll be starting the project some time in July, and our consultant tells us it’s a 60-to-90-day project,” Scher said. “Even if it goes closer to the 90 days, it’ll be completed by the end of October.”
Besides, Scher added, he’s not “real anxious to get started” because the long-term parking lot targeted for expansion currently is “full of cars and there’s nowhere to put them.”
He expects the lot’s demand to soften in May.
The $5 million airport-improvement projects – $3.3 million for the terminal and short-term parking lot, and $1.7 million for the long-term lot – will be funded jointly by the Florida Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration and the city.
“These improvements will make the traveling experience for airline passengers much more pleasant,” Scher said. “If all goes well, we’ll have everything completed before the next busy season.”
The expansion of airport facilities can be directly linked to the success of Breeze Airways, which now connects Vero Beach to eight destinations and transported 170,000 passengers on 1,800 flights in 2024.
Scher said he and his staff are meeting the demand, overcoming the “growing pains associated with taking a general-aviation airport and turning it into a commercial-service airport.”
