Jim Covington

During his first three months as vice president of logistics and aerotropolis development for the Memphis Regional Chamber, Jim Covington has developed a pretty good roadmap of his primary job duties.

Assigned to advance the “aerotropolis” concept – in which Memphis International Airport serves as the economic hub from which myriad business, retail and other economic activity sprouts – Covington understands the need to establish short-term goals while keeping the long-term destination in his sights.

“This is a 50-year story. This is not something we’re going to finish tomorrow,” Covington said. “We are going to finish a lot of things in a short time frame, but this is evolution.”

Survival of the fittest

The evolution of aerotropolis began with University of North Carolina business professor Dr. John Kasarda, who coined the phrase to define a city or region that revolves around the airport as its chief economic engine.

Kasarda has called Memphis the lone aerotropolis in the United States thanks to the airport’s $21.7 billion impact on the region and its status as the world’s busiest for cargo, as well as a hub for Northwest Airlines.

But it isn’t just the airport that makes Memphis an aerotropolis. The area’s highways, railways and river ways, its logistics and distribution capacities, complement Memphis International for their ability to move products and people into and out of the city.

Larry Jensen, president and CEO of Commercial Advisors LLC, calls the aerotropolis idea an integral part of bolstering Memphis’ economy for the future.

“It’s really putting a bow around what we really have,” Jensen told The Daily News recently. “We’re sitting as one of the major, major, major nodes in the rail intermodal (industry) and with the airport. You put those two things together and there are a lot of communities around this country that would be mighty happy and mighty proud of having that in place.”

Aerotropolis also is a central focus of the Chamber’s “Memphis Fast Forward” initiative, which targets industries such as biosciences, tourism, music/film and logistics. The last one includes aerotropolis, something leaders view as an essential component for creating job growth in the region.

“We’re advancing the name aerotropolis and advancing the idea of what it means and how important this opportunity is for the community,” Covington said. “It needs to be brought to the attention of the community as how this piece of it is our economic engine and how we need to focus on it more.”

Ingress and egress

MONEY MAKER: In the “aerotropolis” concept, an airport serves as the economic hub from which myriad business, retail and other economic activity sprouts. Memphis is considered an aerotropolis because Memphis International Airport is a $21.7-billion economic engine for this region. -- IMAGE COURTESY OF DR. JOHN KASARDA

How does the city achieve that, especially in light of these difficult economic times, when shipping is on the decline? One focus is working with local and stage transportation agencies such as the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization and Tennessee Department of Transportation, to create better traffic flow around and through Memphis – especially as it relates to the airport.

“There are several things we’re trying to figure out how to do in the changing economy, but one of the activities we’re looking at are regional highway projects that would help both logistics users and be part of the aerotropolis,” Covington said.

Covington is chiefly concerned with what he calls the “front door and back door” to the aerotropolis, the key corridors for access to Memphis International Airport and all the surrounding intermodal yards and warehouses.

The front door is the Airways Boulevard and Interstate 240 interchange, and the back door is U.S. 78 (Lamar Avenue), soon to be Interstate 22, the road that links Memphis and Birmingham, Ala. Chamber leaders are working with the MPO and TDOT to improve these corridors’ appearance and flow.

“We’re looking at those two connections,” Covington said. “That’s an important future for us in terms of making sure we have good access to the airport and all the logistics and time-critical companies around the airport.”

Other traffic components that will aid aerotropolis development include the completion of Interstate 69, the highway linking Canada and Mexico through the middle U.S. and Memphis; Interstate 269, a loop around the metropolitan area; and the Plough Boulevard and Winchester Road interchange on the north side of the airport.

Complementary efforts

In addition to working with government agencies, the Chamber hopes to create a development corporation to improve the Airways Boulevard corridor from the airport north through the I-240 interchange and into the city.

Like the recently formed Memphis Airport Area Development Corp. – which is working to improve the Brooks Road corridor – the new corporation, still in the planning stages, will call on business leaders and others to contribute.

“We are feeling like the Airways corridor is a year or so behind the Brooks Road corridor, so we’re looking at how to get a similar kind of organization and some interest in that corridor in a similar way,” Covington said.

All those improvements are just the first steps on a long journey that would keep the airport at the heart of the city’s economy.

“There are some great opportunities, especially for time-critical companies looking to be within a five- or 10-minute drive of the airport,” Covington said. “I think it can sell itself and become more and more key pieces of the future of the airport and the aerotropolis.”