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Colorado Springs, Colo., Airport Terminal Renovation Nearly Complete

Posted on: Thursday, 4 May 2006, 15:01 CDT

By Sarah Colwell, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.

May 3--As Mexican artist Albraha Lara placed the blue and green tiles on a mosaic mural in the Colorado Springs Airport's newly renovated waiting area, he also was finishing the airport's terminal renovation project.

The $10.4 million effort began more than two years ago and will be finished next week. Vendors paid for part of the renovations.

The project includes eight new restaurants, larger retail shops, a bigger security screening area and a stone fireplace and mosaic mural in a larger passenger waiting area with plush seating.

The impetus for the renovation came from a couple of factors. The security screening area was not large enough to accommodate post-9/11 federal security requirements. In addition, the eating facilities and shops were outdated for the needs of today's airport traveler, said Mark Earle, aviation director.

"The way the building was used changed after 9/11," Earle said. "There were more functions in security checkpoints, more time in line at security checkpoints. Also, before 9/11, someone meeting someone could go through security to the concourse.

"All that changed with 9/11, which caused us to have a lot of congestion that wasn't planned for in the center of the building. Passengers were leaning against any pole or wall they could find. There was no room for seating, and there is a need for more room for the waiting that happens at airports these days."

Contractors knocked down exterior walls and increased the terminal by 38,000 square feet.

They built a stone fireplace in the rotunda waiting area where travelers can rest in plush chairs and look at Pikes Peak from windows along the west walls.

The Paradies Shops, which operates three retail stores at the airport, added a waterfall to its storefront next to the waiting rotunda.

"I like this whole area. It looks like a living room," said Jamie Bergeron, a business traveler who was waiting in the new area for his flight home to Indianapolis recently. "When I came around the corner, I told (his friend) 'I'm sitting in there before I go through security.' It's nice to relax for a bit."

Giving travelers a more relaxed airport environment was a central focus to the design of the terminal renovation, Earle said.

The project is four months behind schedule because of vendor delays, Earle said. Complications with masonry work in the waiting area caused further delays.

Airport officials used funds from airport revenue sources, such as ticket fees and airport capital improvement funds; no local tax dollars were involved, Earle said.

Paradies invested $1.86 million to renovate its gift shops.

Creative Host Services, which manages the airport's eateries, spent $3.74 million to replace the airport's two cafeteria-style food options and brought in eight new options, including Pikes Perk, Quiznos Sub, Pizza Hut Express, Cafè Azul and two full-service restaurants.

Sales at the shops and restaurants were up 16 percent in the first few months of this year, compared with the same period last year, said Gisela Shana-han, airport finance manager. The airport collects monthly rent and other fees from the businesses.

"We anticipate the concessions to bring in a fairly significant increase in revenue to the airport in 2006, based on the revenues that we're seeing year-to-date," Shanahan said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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YUM,

Source: The Gazette

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