Greenville's airport will soon be taking on a new look later this year, courtesy of a government grant.

On March 31, Congressman Terry Everett announced the approval of a $558,000 federal grant for Greenville's Mac Crenshaw Memorial Airport.

&#8220These funds will be used to construct a new eight-unit hangar with taxiway access to replace the aging and damaged 4-unit hangar currently in use at the airport,” said Everett.

For the city, the new hangars will be &#8220a great deal,” Mayor Dexter McLendon said.

&#8220We are getting this federal grant money to build the hangars. We will be able to rent these hangars out, then put that money back into the general fund, some of which will probably go to additional airport improvements.”

Airport Manager Travis Capps agrees it is a true &#8220win-win” situation.

&#8220Right now we have people in the area who want to have their planes here in a hangar, but there is just no space. Even a ‘cheap' plane from the 1940s is running $30,000 and up, and people naturally want to protect their investment.”

Capps said the new, modern hangars, which will replace structures 25-plus years in age, would allow more aircraft at the local airport and bring more revenue – &#8220both direct income and residual income.”

&#8220With the rental payments and the fuel being purchased, this is a great deal for the city,” Capps said.

McLendon said the new hangars and taxiway access could also be used as an economic development tool by the city.

&#8220If some company is looking to come here and they want to conveniently house a company plane nearby, we will now have the facilities to do just that for them.”

On Tuesday, Capps, McLendon and other city officials met with the engineer to look over preliminary drawings for the hangar.

&#8220The meeting went well and it actually looks like we are going to get by a little cheaper than we originally thought,” Capps said.

The engineer is planning to return a revised set of plans to the city by mid-May.

&#8220We will bring the completed drawings before the planning commission in June. If they are approved, once bids have been awarded, actual construction should take about 60 days, depending on the weather and other factors,” Capps said.

The project will actually be in two phases: removal of the existing building, which is expected to take 15-30 days, and the two-month construction phase.