Airport can lease building to Moffitt

The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the way for the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority to lease the former Continental Airlines reservation center at 4101 Jim Walter Blvd. that once was slated for demolition.

The H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute had indicated through a broker it was interested in leasing the vacant building to create an outpatient radiation therapy center.

The proposed lease of the building will be scheduled for consideration at an aviation authority board meeting Aug. 5.

Airport officials in late January made a counterproposal of annual land rent of $282,000 and improvement rent between $190,000 and $240,000 for the property after the broker's first offer turned out to be $300,000, not $600,000 as originally expected.

The FAA says in a letter dated June 23 that it released the property from a provision that requires an airport use for a structure on aviation authority property, saying the lease revenue would better serve the airport than vacant land.

The issue of whether the aviation authority should try to lease the building rather than use former airport director Louis Miller's original plan to demolish it became one of the points of contention between Miller and a board reorganized last summer with two new appointees by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Miller had been given authority to make demolition decisions at a time when the airport was involved in acquiring numerous Drew Park land parcels for air cargo and other expansion, under the rationale the board need not consider each property.

Miller had consulted on demolishing the vacant Continental building, rather than paying to maintain it, with former aviation authority Chairman Stephen Mitchell and, later, current Chairman Al Austin, who concurred in the demolition decision.

Other board members, however, were not aware of the reservation center demolition plans. After a broker privately approached one of them, Miller held off demolishing the building until the FAA ruled on whether the airport could lease it.

Miller resigned in February, citing a desire to pursue other work. His resignation came after strained relations involving, in main, two of the board members and the airport's staff counsel.