A Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission committee voted Wednesday to accept a recommendation that the Aerospace Education Center, still unused after nearly three years of airport ownership, be demolished rather than continue to pay $180,000 a year to operate and maintain it.
Staff members at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field have been unable to find a tenant for the distinctive building off Roosevelt Road where thousands of visitors, many of them schoolchildren, once flocked to view documentary films on its then-novel IMAX screen.
The nonprofit Arkansas Aviation Historical Society closed the center in 2011, with its board saying that declining revenue and higher operating costs made it no longer viable to operate. The airport took over the facility in July 2011 and said it costs about $180,000 annually to operate and maintain it.
A Bigelow company was the low bidder for a contract to demolish the building, which the committee approved Wednesday and forwarded to the full commission for a final vote Tuesday.
The bid from Lipsmeyer Demolition Co. was $239,000, which would be recouped from not paying for the building's upkeep for about 18 months, said Tom Clarke, the airport's properties, planning and development director.
A committee member, Bob East, sought assurances that the commission's actions won't catch anyone off guard.
"I want to make sure everyone knows about this and we don't blindside anyone," he said before the committee voted 3-0 to accept the staff members' recommendation.
Committee member Kathy Webb wanted to know why the Lipsmeyer bid was markedly lower than the bids submitted by two other firms -- $505,000 from D&R LLC of Crossett and $696,000 from Precision Demolition LLC of Lewisville, Texas.
Clarke said airport engineers could find no "fatal flaws" in the bid Lipsmeyer submitted.
He also said that of the three firms, representatives from Lipsmeyer had spent the most time at the Aerospace Education Center before making its bid.
"While those numbers are widely varying, our original estimate was $300,000, so it's not out of line," East said of the low bid.
The 64,000-square-foot building, erected at a cost of $6 million and first opened in 1995, is too specific in its configuration -- it was designed to house a museum, planetarium, theater and library -- to adapt to other uses, according to staff members.
The digital technology associated with the planetarium remains state of the art, which is why airport officials believe a market exists for the technology, which will be saved from the demolition along with the IMAX equipment, Clarke said.
The planetarium was housed in a two-story spherical addition to the main Aerospace Education Center building. The $2 million theater, which had room for 150 people, opened in 2004, according to news accounts.
The theater featured a 360-degree dome and fisheye-lens projector that allowed viewers to tour the universe and see celestial events unavailable with traditional planetariums.
At the time of the center's opening, center officials said they developed the planetarium concept so that in addition to offering an educational experience, it could attract customers to help support operating the center.
The airport remains saddled with a completion center that once belonged to aircraft-maker Hawker Beechcraft.
The company vacated the sprawling complex as part of its exit from bankruptcy last year. The airport expects a $1.3 million hit to its $30.2 million budget this year through a combination of lost rental income and the maintenance and utility costs associated with the complex.
The airport has enlisted an international firm to market the complex.
Metro on 06/12/2014