Southport Airport and Commercial Properties looked back at the past year with smiles Wednesday.

Their Annual General Meeting was held in the Hilly Brown Building. CEO Peggy May renewed her contract for another five years and says 2016 was a busy but productive year.

"Central Plains Rec-Plex has a really good kick off and our membership has grown by more than 20 per cent. We opened the Portage Day Care, and the Sawmill Tea And Coffee Company, and that's just added a whole new aspect to the whole Southport site. Our residents can go for a coffee in the morning, or a Latte -- they're really good," she laughs. "It's been really helpful to open the day care for our military families, but not just for them for the whole Southport community."

Southport CEO Peggy May's looking forward to their upcoming year. (Photo by Aaron Wilgosh)

May says the site is almost full and they'll continue searching for a few new tenants to round things out. She says recreation, commercial, and residential are all strong areas at Southport. The residential area is 100 per cent filled up, and they're always looking to continue renovations at those units, and future developments.

May adds they've got a really big 2018 planned including another Manitoba Air Show, but this time Southport will have a little more control over the event.

"KF Aero and Southport are going to partner to put on an air show in Portage la Prairie June 9th, and 10th, next year. We think it's going to be a really unique event, and we're going to put our own spin on it. We really want to show the people of Manitoba what Portage can do."

Other events scheduled for 2018 include the Royal Canadian Air Force Gala on April, 21st. Another student UAV competition, their third one. And a new Precision Ag Conference that will happen in December of this year.