Airport Resort Parking LLC wants to expand its airport private-parking garage concept to Centennial Airport, targeting the private-plane set there.
Plans are to build 22 private garages at Centennial. The garages could allow those who own or charter planes to store their cars while they fly.
The company already has 30 private-parking units at Denver International Airport and could build as many as 347.
Whereas high daily-parking prices at DIA might make the expense of a private garage seem reasonable for some, Centennial’s free open-air parking could provide stiff competition.
Pre-construction lease rates for the Centennial units are $1,800 for one year, with 4 percent annual increases, according to Airport Resort Parking’s website. Three-year, five-year and 10-year leases are also listed.
A one-year lease at DIA starts at $2,400.
Airport Resort Parking, a development of L.C. Fulenwider Inc., also wants to expand to Vail, Steamboat, Yampa Valley, Montrose and Grand Junction, but those plans are not as far along.
The proposed Centennial development will be reviewed at an Aug. 10 public hearing of the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority.
Airport Resort Parking principal Chris Thompson said the Centennial parking garages, if approved, could open this year.
The Centennial private-jet market is different from the market at DIA, where Airport Resort Parking targets mountain-home owners such as Milwaukee lawyer James Clark, who flies into DIA about once a month and then drives to his second home in Avon.
A delayed late-night flight last winter almost left him without transportation to Avon, and “that sort of pushed me over the brink,” Clark said. He signed a five-year lease on a private garage, which goes for $10,800.
“It’s not an insignificant expense,” Clark said, but “I just got to the point where the convenience of having a car we could count on outweighed the cost.”
Twenty-five of the 30 units at DIA have been rented, and Airport Resort Parking plans to start the next phase later this year.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or at kyamanouchi@denverpost.com .
