City of Lawton moves ahead with renovation of regional airport

The city of Lawton is planning $15 million in renovation of the Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport.

Members of the Lawton Metropolitan Area Airport Authority voted this week to issue a $15 million revenue note to renovate most of the airport terminal, according to the Lawton Constitution.

The renovations will include a new secured passenger holding area and a new front entrance. The upgrades will cost between $10 and $12 million.

Jarrad Davidson, a bond attorney for Public Law Group told the board that the airport has about $2 million identified for the project and will to search for grants and supplemental funding from the Federal Aviation Administration. Public Law was hired last year by the airport authority to carry out analysis of funding ideas to pay for the terminal work.

Lawton’s plan means issuing a series of revenue bonds, then using the airport’s annual allocation of federal funds to repay the debt. Davidson said Arvest Bank has agreed to act as the lead bank in the revenue bond program, meaning Public Law Group will be dealing with one bank rather than many different banks who may chose to participate in the program as bonds are issued each year.

Davidson said he wanted to emphasize “right out of the gate” that he doesn’t expect the airport authority to use all $15 million; that is the top end of the bond program.