The Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport board on Tuesday approved trying to secure a Foreign Trade Zone to generate new revenue for the airport.
According to the International Trade Administration, Foreign Trade Zones (FTZ) are designated sites at which special customs procedures may be used.
“These procedures allow domestic activity involving foreign items to take place prior to formal customs entry. Duty-free treatment is accorded items that are re-exported and duty payment is deferred on items sold in the U.S. market, thus offsetting customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with producers located in the United States,” according to the ITA website.
The Owensboro Riverport Authority (ORA) has been an FTZ for roughly 25 years. OWB Airport Director Tristan Durbin and Board Chair Doug Hoyt said they contacted Scott Taylor, ORA’s lawyer, and learned that receiving the FTZ designation can help the airport generate revenue by utilizing a storage facility on their property.
Durbin said they would be able to store items and goods of their choice, noting they currently don’t have a particular good or client in mind.
“I think this positions us well to be able to market and advertise the airport as a true asset and start utilizing a lot of our developable areas that we have in the airport,” Durbin said.
Hoyt added that there is a lot of flexibility in how the airport could utilize the space within an FTZ, adding he would encourage leaving the door open for expansion regardless of exactly how they move forward.
“We talked about what are the opportunities to attract and grow this community from the perspective of the airport,” Hoyt said. “An 8,000-foot runway and a tower is really nice to have, but it is not what’s going to attract somebody because it hasn’t done it for many years.”
If OWB were to receivethe FTZ designation, it — like ORA — would be under the purview of Louisville’s FTZ and customs would be operated by Evansville’s Customs and Border Protection office.
Hoyt and Durbin said the main drawback to obtaining FTZ designation is the cost. They said it would cost an estimated $15,000 to achieve the designation, plus an annual $2,500-$3,000 fee to maintain it.
However, the board unanimously passed the motion to move forward with seeking designation, with Hoyt and outgoing financial director Brenda Clayton saying they support the effort due to the financial condition of the airport.
“I can tell you in the years that I’ve been participating with this airport, we’re in better financial condition than we ever have been. We have more opportunity and more resources to make an investment in ourselves and in this community,” Hoyt said.
Clayton also noted that as a member of the board for 27 years, this conversation has risen before but now they are at a place where they can move forward with a decision.
“For me, it’s always appealed to me because it just gives you another opportunity to [develop something],” Clayton said. “… I just find this is an opportunity to kind of take things in a different direction that connects you with [the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation] as they’re looking for businesses coming in and they’re looking for land.”
