04/09/2013 - Midway launches rental car center (News)
8 companies, 1 fleet of shuttles operating under 1 roof
By Jon Hilkevitch, Chicago Tribune reporter
Eight rental car companies serving Midway Airport travelers will operate under one roof beginning Tuesday.
It should mean fewer rental-car shuttle buses clogging the terminal roadway and shorter waits for car renters, officials said.
A single fleet of white shuttle buses displaying the rental car companies' names and logos will traverse between Midway's passenger terminal at 5700 S. Cicero Ave. and a $55 million consolidated rental car center a few minutes' drive away at 5150 W. 55th St., according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
The shuttles will use a buses-only airport road that passes over Cicero and goes directly to the rental car center.
The five-level center can hold 1,870 vehicles, increasing Midway's capacity for rental cars by more than 500 percent, officials said.
"The project is one of the largest capital projects completed at Midway in almost 10 years, and the investment makes Midway an even more valuable asset to the city," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.
The Emanuel administration is expected to decide soon whether to solicit bids to lease Midway to private operators, under a Federal Aviation Administration pilot program that would allow the city to divert revenue generated at Midway for other infrastructure projects. City officials hope private investors and operators are willing to pay a huge windfall for the right to operate the Southwest Side airport for as long as 40 years.
The new rental car facility, which contains more than 17,000 square feet of vegetated roof space to help keep the building cooler in summer and warmer in winter, is adjacent to the airport's economy parking garage.
It replaces rental car services in the airport's main parking garage and nearby, said Gregg Cunningham, a spokesman for the Aviation Department. Rental car kiosks in the terminal will close, freeing space for other passenger services, Cunningham said.
Moving some rental cars away from the second floor of Midway's main parking garage will free up about 325 parking spaces, he said.
A consolidated rental car center "is a more efficient operation at one convenient location streamlined for passengers," Cunningham said. "A single shuttle bus operation for rental cars will also cut down on the amount of traffic circulating on the local area roadways."
The new facility will house the Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Hertz, National, Thrifty and Enterprise rental car companies, officials said. Vehicles will be fueled, washed and prepared for rental at the facility.
The move does not affect other rental car businesses that are near Midway, mostly on Cicero and Archer avenues.
Construction of the rental car center was funded by Midway general airport revenue bonds, which were backed by a $3.75 fee that has been paid by rental car customers since 2005, officials said. Construction of the facility began in August 2011.
The new rental car structure features some "green" amenities, including solar panels and wind turbines to generate power, a detention basin to manage stormwater and equipment to collect rainwater for irrigation, officials said, adding that water that's used to wash rental vehicles will be filtered and reused.
The shuttle buses will run on biodiesel fuel, officials said.
Meanwhile, the city also plans to build a unified rental car center at O'Hare International Airport. The facility, set to open as soon as late 2016, will be on the site of the current remote economy parking Lot F, near Mannheim and Zemke roads, officials said. The structure would be up to nine levels and house public parking for as many as 8,000 vehicles in addition to 4,100 spaces for rental cars, aviation officials said.
No contract has been issued. The Aviation Department is evaluating statements of qualifications from firms, Cunningham said.
Plans include extending the People Mover light rail airport transit system to the rental car facility, officials said. The existing cellphone lot next to Lot F would be relocated, officials said.
The city has estimated that the rental car structure, public parking garage and People Mover extension would cost less than $800 million to build.
jhilkevitch@tribune.com
Twitter @jhilkevitch