Demolition looms for Aerospace Education Center

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The commission that oversees Little Rocks airport is to vote Tuesday whether to approve the demolition of the Aerospace Education Center, which has been closed since the start of 2011.

The Arkansas Aviation Historical Society opened the center in 1995, having raised private funds. The center was a popular attraction with an IMAX theater - the only one in the state at the time - showing science and nature films, and an aviation museum. A planetarium was added later.

But its popularity waned and the society didnt have the revenues to keep the center open. The facility was ceded to the airport, which had given the group a 99-year lease on the land, free of charge.

Since taking over the closed center, the commission has spent $180,000 per year on maintenance and utilities.

The only use the airport has been getting from the site is its use as a cellphone parking lot, where people can wait until their partys flight has landed and then drive onto the grounds and pick them up.

That use will continue, officials said.

Shane Carter, spokesman for the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, said Friday the IMAX and planetarium gear would be removed in hope of finding a new home for them, perhaps at the Museum of Discovery in downtown Little Rock.

Weve already paid approximately $560,000 since the building reverted to us in 2001, Carter said.

The commission has shown the building, with its theater, museum and planetarium to a number of interested groups, but no one came away with a plan to reopen the facility.

Those are very specialized uses, Carter said.

See more here:
Demolition looms for Aerospace Education Center