Car Rental Facility Gets Facelift at Southwest Florida Airport

Lee County Florida commissioners chose a design company and a construction company on Sept. 12 for a project to reconfigure the car rental facility at Southwest Florida International Airport, according to an article from News-Press.

The car rental facility “redo” located at the South Fort Myers, Fla. airport, comes at the request of the car rental agencies in an attempt to consolidate now-merged companies and create smoother daily operations. The agencies will pick up the costs, which port authority officials have estimated in the range of $2 million to $2.5 million.

The commissioners ratified several recommendations from business people serving on the Airports Special Management Committee. The commissioners chose JDK General Contractors, based in Davie, Fla., to lead the construction work, but only after a lengthy discussion on when it is appropriate to give preference to local businesses.

Though JDK is not a local business, the commissioners’ decision was due to the company’s experience in leading similar construction projects in shifting the layout of car rental agency operations at many airports including two other Florida airports: Orlando in 2010 and Tampa earlier this year. The company also led construction for the original car rental layout at Southwest Florida International before the airport opened, according to JDK’s Ken Novak.