A consolidated rental car facility works when the business agreement behind it and the physical plan for it move forward together. That alignment must hold throughout the process.
FORT WORTH, July 28, 2026 – Airport owners increasingly view the consolidated rental car facility (ConRAC) as more than a construction project. Customer facility charges, concession fees and rental car company agreements tied to these facilities can generate a stable revenue stream for the airport, one that supports debt service and strengthens the credit picture behind the broader capital program.
That value depends on more than design and construction. A ConRAC starts as a business agreement between the airport and its rental car companies. Rate structures, lease terms, service obligations and long-term commitments get negotiated well before ground breaks. The physical plan, including the site, the design and the construction sequence, develops alongside that agreement, often through a different team on a different timeline. When the two move out of step, airports lose value the facility was meant to capture.
Keeping them aligned takes deliberate, ongoing coordination. Someone must understand the commercial strategy well enough to translate it into design requirements and understand the design and construction process well enough to flag when a change on one side effects the other.
At Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Paslay Group provides that function directly. Justin Ritter, C.M., an associate principal at Paslay Group, supports the airport’s long-term ConRAC and rental car service center planning. He serves as a liaison between the airport’s commercial and planning teams.
“The commercial strategy and the physical plan get negotiated on two different tracks, by two different teams, and they don’t always talk to each other as often as they should,” Ritter said. ” I advise clients how to ensure a decision made on the design side reflects what was agreed to on the commercial side, and that the commercial team understands what a design change means for the deal. That has to happen continuously, not just at the milestones.”
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is applying the same approach as it advances CLEvolution, its multi-year, $1.6 billion terminal modernization project encompassing the terminal, concourses and landside infrastructure. Paslay Group supports terminal redevelopment, concourse work, and landside roadway and parking improvements within the program. A future consolidated rental car facility is also being considered as a potential public-private partnership (P3). A P3 structure introduces a third party into the business relationship between the airport and rental car companies, making it even more important to keep the commercial agreement and physical plan aligned. Paslay Group holds every program to that same standard, with one team tracking the commercial strategy and the physical plan together so the two rarely drift far enough apart to cause a problem.
As more airports invest in rental car and ground transportation facilities in the years ahead, the ones that actively manage this alignment, not just the construction schedule, will get the most value out of what they build.
