Airport’s $250,000 urged as redo aid

Extra would help fit food outlets in

NOEL OMAN

Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field wants to kick in an additional $250,000 to help pay for extra modifications as part of a $4 million upgrade of its concession offerings, including the addition of two major restaurant chain outlets, Chili’s and Chick-fil-A.

Earlier this year, the airport elected to have Host International remain as the airport’s prime concessionaire, in part because the company has an exclusive agreement to provide Starbucks coffee at the 120 airports where Host has operations.

Clinton National has Starbucks kiosks in the terminal and in the concourse, which have proved popular among the nearly 2 million people who arrive or depart from the airport every year.

Regarding the new food outlets, the original plans, driven by kitchen requirements and design standards, would have had the new Chili’s restaurant replace the Ouachita Landing restaurant and add Chick-fil-A to space in the existing food court, both of which are in the airport concourse.

But the plans left both the Chili’s restaurant and the food court with limited seating for customers, airport officials said.

Plans were on hold to add gates to the concourse, so as to the siting of the new food outlets, “now was not the time, to make sure we were not being limited by current configurations,” and the airport’s architect was asked to take a fresh look, the airport staff said.

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The new plans call for the food court to be switched to the Ouachita Landing restaurant site and for the Chili’s to go into the space now occupied by the food court.

Tom Clarke, the airport’s properties, planning and development director, said the switch required the additional expense of providing new walk-in refrigeration units for the food court and other improvements.

The initial agreement would have required $3.5 million in capital investment, with $3 million by Host and $500,000 by the commission. Host also was to make another $500,000 in improvements to the concessions midway through the 10-year agreement.

Under the new agreement, the airport will contribute $750,000.

The lease/consultant selection committee of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, which sets policy for the airport, recommended the modified agreement to the commission Wednesday.

“I have no problem with it,” said committee member Meredith Catlett. “I think it looks good.”

The airport staff has said it hopes the addition of two national outlets will help boost the airport’s bottom line.

Revenue from food, beverages and retail operations was almost $1 million for the airport last year, equating to about 3 percent of total revenue of $32,758,848 in 2016.

Host International operates the food and beverage side of the concessions. It subleases the retail portion to the Hudson Group. Together, they had gross revenue totaling $8 million in 2016, with food and beverages delivering a sizable part of that, $5.8 million.

The work is expected to begin in January after the Christmas and New Year’s travel holiday period and take up to four months to complete, said Bryan Malonowski, the airport’s deputy executive director.