b'LANDSIDE DEVELOPMENTELP 71investment in El Pasos future and a reshaping of our economicThe 601 Corridor offers industrial tenants ready access to railways, landscape.highways and the airfield.Still, Choudhuri predicts it will take a decade for the benefits ofRodriguez points to the Innovation Factory and Advanced todays efforts to really take hold. Connecting local manufacturersManufacturing and Design Center as the latest embodiments of with larger suppliers will occur in year one, with additional growthELPs forward-thinking mindset. to follow in three- to five-year phases moving forward, he explains. Its been in our strategic plan for the city to use airport development to attract advanced manufacturing, he says. We Approaching A Century of Success certainly want to be a player in that as an airport, not just for the Using aviation to spur regional employmentand national defenserevenue we get through land leases but also togenerate more interestsseems to be part of ELPs DNA. This autumn will markair service demand for the region. the airports 95th anniversary, and its genesis was inspired by a visit from one of historys best-known aviators and modern military pioneers. Roughly four months after he completedthe first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris, Charles Lindbergh piloted the Spirit of St. Louis to El Paso amid his famed Goodwill Tour across the United States and Latin America. Encouraged by Lindberghs vision of commercial aviation, the El PasoAero Club immediately began plans for a municipal airport.The airport that became ELP opened on Sept. 8, 1928less than one year after Lindberghs influential visit.Over the years, the communitys hoped-for aviation successes came to fruition with some notable milestones. In the late 1960s, ELP became the first U.S. airport to feature a 130-foot-tall control tower, and by 2000 it was the first to operate a Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) for air traffic control. That technology has since replaced legacy air traffic control automation equipment at more than 200 FAA and Department of Defense Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities. ELPs push to develop adjacent land for non-aeronautical uses was also ahead of the diversification curve. Today, it supports more than 200 commercial businesses and industrial operations, including an air cargo center; light manufacturing; warehousing, distribution and transportation operations; call centers; hotels, retail and restaurants; and two golf coursesall on airport-owned land.Marmaxx Inc. recently opened a 200-acre distribution center at ELP to support its nationwide network of Marshalls, Homegoods and TJ Maxx retail stores. Today, nearly 3,500 acres of airport land remain available for additional developments, spread over five distinct property districts surrounding ELP. AirportImprovement.comMarch | April 2023'