{"id":364963,"date":"2026-08-07T03:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364963\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T03:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T03:36:09","slug":"pie-expansion-scaled-back-due-to-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364963\/","title":{"rendered":"PIE expansion scaled back due to cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014 The original expansion concept St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport<\/a> leaders began exploring two years ago greatly exceeded available funding and has been scaled back to a modernization-renovation expansion project, according to Airport Director Mark Sprague<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe original expansion was slated as a budget for $110 million,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we continued to get the schematic designs and the project evolved, the price tag was over $200 million.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sprague presented his findings and a new recommended path forward to Pinellas County commissioners during a workshop on Thursday. The director said airport leaders met with stakeholders and were consistently told that before building new space, PIE should first modernize the existing terminal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat input, combined with our financial analysis, led us to today\u2019s recommendation,\u201d he said. \u201cA fiscal responsibility program that\u2026 modernizes aging infrastructure, improves operational efficiencies, enhances the passenger experience and still preserves the flexibility of future growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The budget for the revised expansion and renovation project is $145 million, with the funding coming from airport reserves, the FAA and FDOT, according to Sprague. Commissioner Rene Flowers said she\u2019s happy the airport is not going to take on any debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the money, which is really important,\u201d she said. \u201cCertainly the upgrades will bring us up a notch, if you will, when it comes to an airport our size, and it also fits within the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project includes a 40,000 square foot elevated terminal space, which will have four to five new jet bridges. Sprague said the new building will help aircraft turnaround times improve because it\u2019ll replace the current one-gate door which is used to board three airplanes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn ultra-low cost carrier aircraft should be able to come in, offload, reload in 40 minutes,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause of our inefficiencies, it takes 60 to 120 minutes to turn that aircraft around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plans to renovate the original terminal have 13 elements which include replacing sewer lines, part of the roof, modernizing the restrooms, replacing two jet bridges, upgrading the fire control panel, new signage, modernizing all the columns throughout the terminal, new construction of a wall along the southern portion of the terminal, modernizing the rental car ticket area, renovating the baggage area and renovating the ticket counter area, which Sprague said topped the list.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ticket counters, it was a good setup 10, 15 years ago,\u201d he said. \u201cBut with the innovation of technology and the kiosks, traveling passengers want to do that. They don\u2019t want to go up to a ticket counter if they don\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flowers said she was happy the gate holding room area was going to be remodeled with more seats being added, as she has seen passengers sitting on the floor when the airport is busy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to make sure that they\u2019re comfortable while they\u2019re waiting on their flight,\u201d she said. \u201cThat was one of my concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many commissioners pressed Sprague about adding a new airline to PIE, which he said cannot be done until the renovations are complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to bring a new airline in that that can sustain growth, we need to\u2026 modernize the terminal first,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to fix all our efficiencies in order for the current terminal to be much more easily accessible and customer-friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sprague also presented a new five-year operating agreement with Allegiant Airlines, which will bring in an extra $1.2 million in fiscal year 2027 and continue growing by three percent for each additional year. Those new funds will be used to replenish the airport reserve fund for future growth.<\/p>\n

Pinellas County commissioners are scheduled to vote on the approval of three revised contracts for the airport expansion and renovation project at their meeting on Tuesday. If approved, construction will begin in 2028 and wrap up by 2032.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2014 The original expansion concept St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport leaders began exploring two years ago greatly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[11687,11902,2031,2173,2175,558,2968,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,14104,2180,729,2177,11901,107,835],"class_list":["post-364963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-air-travel","tag-app-air-travel","tag-app-local-business","tag-app-traffic-transit","tag-app-traffic-and-transit","tag-business","tag-josh-rojas","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-topic-latest-local-business-stories","tag-topic-latest-traffic-transit-news","tag-traffic","tag-traffic-and-transit","tag-transit","tag-travel","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}