Orlando Expansions

Orlando Expansions

By John F. Infanger, Editorial Director

January/February 2001

SHOWALTER FLYING
SERVICES - ORLANDO
EXECUTIVE AIRPORT
Rocking chairs and a wrap-around porch maintain the flavor of Southern charm, but everything else says new at the $1.8 million fixed base operation opened by Bob and Kim Showalter this past fall. The 11,000-sq.ft. terminal also features a V-shape design that resembles a flying-wing bomber from the air.
Showalter is a Phillips 66 Aviation Performance Center that has 32 employees. The FBO, into year four of a 25-year lease, has a 50-acre leasehold that includes 50 individual T-hangars and 15 additional hangars ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 sq.ft. - housing some 180 tenant aircraft. Plans call for construction of a 10,000-sq.ft. and 15,000-sq.ft. hangar.
According to the company, some 80-85 percent of annual fuel revenues ($5-6 million) come from transients to the vacation destination city. The Showalter FBO also is now a Southeast sales representative for the German manufactured Extra aircraft.

RANGER AVIATION - KISSIMMEE MUNICIPAL AIRPORT
Ranger Aviation, Inc., operator of the Ranger Jet Center at Kissimmee, is preparing to break ground on a 166,000-sq.ft. hangar/office complex. The $10 million project will also feature up to ten hangars, 13,500-sq. ft. each. Ranger is an AirBP dealer that currently operates its FBO in a 24,000-sq.ft. office/ hangar facility.
Charles "Kip" Bonar and T.R. "Tony" Capps are co-founders of the FBO. They are also owners of Ranger Building Services, Inc., a construction management and general contracting firm that has also undertaken the new FBO complex.
Kissimmee Municipal markets itself as the closest airport to OrlandoÕs convention center and theme parks.