New $6M terminal for Harnett airport highlights regional growth

A small airport 30 miles south of Raleigh is about to receive a major upgrade.

Harnett Regional Jetport, located off Highway 421 between Lillington and Erwin, is building a new 7,361-square-foot terminal – for context, the previous terminal was only 2,200 square feet. The $6 million project, which received funding from the State Capital Infrastructure Fund (SCIF), could be completed by the end of this year, said Jerry Milton, chairman of the Harnett County airport’s board.

The previous terminal was built in 1981 and has “far exceeded its lifetime,” Milton told Triangle Business Journal.

“When companies, and especially bigger companies, come in and look, you always want to have your best foot forward,” Milton said. “And with the facility that we had, it was truly outdated. It wasn’t to the same caliber as counties around us.”

He added: “With this new building, it will help us show off Harnett County in so many ways.”

The terminal will also serve as the new home of the Harnett County Economic Development organization.

Per Milton, companies that have planes at the airport include furniture company Rooms To Go – which opened a 1.3 million-square-foot distribution center in 2016 off Interstate 95 in Harnett County’s largest city of Dunn – and Godwin manufacturing.

Milton said next up for the airport is to expand its space to build hangars for more companies, as the airport is currently at capacity, he said.

Harnett County is poised for growth, as two major housing developments — Serenity and Capeton in Lillington — could bring thousands of residents to the area in the coming years. And a $10 million workforce development center focused on biotech, agtech, artificial intelligence and software programming is coming to the area as well, TBJ reported last month.

The Harnett Regional Jetport plays a key role in the county’s growth. According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s “State of Aviation” report released in January, the airport is responsible for 670 direct and indirect jobs and $146.6 million in annual economic output — the 10th most among North Carolina’s 62 general aviation airports.

Original article source: Triangle Business Journal