The opening of the new 111,000-square-foot facility, known as the McCarran Rent-A-Car Center, eventually will lead to the development of additional overflow parking for the airport's parking garages.

The facility on 68 acres at Gilespie Street between George Crockett and Warm Springs roads south of McCarran was slated to open April 4 with a grand opening scheduled April 16. The $166.8 million center opened several months later than the contracted completion date because of weather and contractor delays.

The new facility has a public lobby area accessible to 11 rental companies and three walkways to different sections of a three-level, 1.8 million-square-foot parking garage with room for more than 5,000 vehicles. The city's fourth Airport SpeedCheck Advance baggage check-in center is located at the facility, giving locals a good reason to use the rental center.

The 11 companies housed at the new center are Advantage/US, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, Payless, Savmor and Thrifty.

Randy Walker, director of the Clark County Department of Aviation, said the new facility accomplishes several goals for both the airport and the rental car companies that have taken up residence in the new building.

"We had run out of places for them (rental car companies) to grow and that was an issue for them," Walker said. "In addition to giving them more room, we'll be improving several things in airport operations at the same time."

One of the biggest operational changes will be transportation between the airport and the rental cars. McCarran acquired a fleet of 42 buses for $12 million, with each bus having about 20 seats and large racks for suitcases. Because passengers will be allowed to stand, each bus will have a capacity of about 32 passengers.

The consolidated transit system will pick up car rental customers from curbs at the airport and deliver them to the facility. Under the old system, each rental company had its own buses and curb locations.

"I stood out there and watched 10 buses pick up 32 people," Walker said. "With our buses, you would need no more than two buses and they're going to the same place. We'll be able to reduce traffic and at the same time make the curb space more efficient since every company won't need it."

Removing the individual company buses - Walker disparagingly refers to them as "moving billboards" - will eliminate traffic, reduce curb clutter and cut fuel emissions and pollution.

In addition to consolidating customers, the new facility has a more efficient back-of-the-house car servicing area for the rental companies. Three buildings known as Quick Turn Around buildings are equipped with wash racks and service bays, each with their own fuel canopy and common fueling systems that include two 25,000-gallon underground fuel storage tanks and distribution lines.

The next challenge for McCarran is to alert customers from out of town about the change. Fliers have been printed and advertising has been increased to get the word out and each car rental company has undertaken its own strategies to alert customers to the change.

To get rental customers out of the mindset of watching for buses with their company's logos on them, the airport will instead remind them that "the next bus is yours."

The completion of the McCarran Rent-A-Car Center is expected to have a domino effect on other airport projects waiting in the wings.

Walker said the airport already has called for and received bids for a terminal remodeling project to eliminate the existing rental car counter space. The plan will be to clear out the existing corridor that separates the north and south halves of the airport's baggage-claim area.

The four baggage carousels closest to that corridor will be upgraded to offer more capacity and the two baggage-claim areas eventually would become one. Walker said construction on the $11 million project would begin by summer.

In addition to eliminating counters, McCarran will have some new options for the car rental centers that were located on Rent A Car Road near Terminal 2 on the north side of the airport. Walker said those locations would become new overflow parking lots. The existing overflow parking lots east of the main terminal will disappear as construction moves ahead on the new Terminal 3 project.

Airport officials studied consolidated car rental facilities at other airports for two years before coming up with the design for the facility that opened last week. Walker said the best ideas from facilities at San Francisco International and Dallas-Fort Worth International airports were used. Another growing airport in the Southwest, Phoenix's Sky Harbor International, also consolidated its rental car facility, opening it last year.

The new car rental facility will cost rental companies more - but how much more is hard to quantify because in the past, each company was responsible for building and maintaining its own center. Prior to the consolidated system, McCarran leased counter space and land along Rent A Car Road. Now, the leases are higher because they include a new facility as well.

Walker said the rental car companies are happy, since they asked for more room - and the new facility will provide it. In addition to the new center, McCarran has acquired homes in the neighborhood on the east side of Gilespie Street and will demolish them to make room for additional parking space as rental companies continue to expand.

Not everybody will be happy. The new center was built to serve 11 companies. Any new car-rental companies that enter the market or smaller operators hoping for exposure by locating at the new center will have to wait for space to open up. In addition, McCarran won't allow other companies to shuttle customers to the curbs at the airport. Instead, they'll have to shuttle customers to the new rental-car facility and use the shared McCarran buses to go to the airport.

Part of the cost of the new center is being paid by car-rental customers paying a $3 daily customer facility charge tacked onto their bills. But most customers won't notice any increases because they've been paying the additional $3 daily charge for two years.

In 2006, the 11 airport-based car rental companies wrote 1.8 million car rental contracts. The average rental charge per day was $35.72 that year and the average length of contract was 4.4 days.

Placing an Airport SpeedCheck Advance center at the McCarran Rent-A-Car Center is expected to draw some local residents to the new building. SpeedCheck is McCarran's off-airport baggage check-in service.

Passengers wanting to check their bags in advance of flying to avoid lines at the airport terminal can check their bags up to 12 hours before flight time, but no later than three hours before departure by bringing them to the SpeedCheck desk at the rental center.

Currently, SpeedCheck only serves customers of Southwest Airlines, but airport officials say additional airlines are on the verge of coming online. The service costs $20 for checking up to three bags. SpeedCheck desks currently operate at the Venetian and Luxor hotels and at the Las Vegas Convention Center.