Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport wins $13.6 million federal grant
Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport landed the county’s only piece of a $27 million disaster-recovery package, with $13.6 million aimed at critical infrastructure.
The Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport won $13.6 million in federal funding on July 9, giving Hernando County its only award in a $27 million disaster-recovery package spread across five states hit by storms and natural disasters in 2023 and 2024. The grant was the largest of the six awards announced and puts new federal money behind one of the county’s most important economic-development properties.
U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis said the award will support critical infrastructure improvements at the airport and could help the site grow, compete and create new opportunities for businesses and families in the Tampa Bay area. County Commissioners John Allocco and Ryan Amsler said the airport’s industrial park has more than 100 businesses, underscoring how closely the site is tied to local jobs, logistics and private investment.
The airport is not a passenger hub or cargo terminal. It is a general aviation facility, with two flight schools, military training, business aircraft and corporate jets using the field. Its primary instrument landing system-equipped Runway 9-27 is 7,001 feet long and 150 feet wide, a scale that helps explain why local leaders keep marketing the property as more than a strip of pavement on the edge of Brooksville.
Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport sits on a 2,400-acre master-planned campus with more than 1,000 acres available for development and a 285-acre Duke Energy Ready Site parcel already described as having infrastructure in place. Hernando County budget documents also describe it as a 2,400-acre general aviation facility and technology center, and the airport’s business-development materials call it the epicenter of economic development in Hernando County.
That economic pitch is built on a long runway in more ways than one. The property began as Brooksville Army Airfield during World War II, when the U.S. War Department used it as an auxiliary field for pilot and ground-crew training. Hernando County’s master plan, last updated in 2013, is intended as a 20-year roadmap for a safe, economical and environmentally acceptable aviation facility.
A Hernando County public notice said the Economic Development Administration was considering a request to construct the Brooksville-Tampa Bay Regional Airport Critical Construction Project, suggesting the grant fits into a broader effort already underway. For county leaders, the next test is whether the money moves quickly into specific repairs and hardening projects that can be measured in more than ribbon cuttings: stronger operations, better business access and a more resilient airport when the next storm season arrives.
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