New concessions opportunities for the revamped LaGuardia Airport (LGA) will be released “within the next month or so” and possibly as soon as the end of July, according to Ed Baklor, chief commercial officer of LaGuardia Gateway Partners, the consortium selected two years ago to revitalize the aging airport.
The upcoming solicitation “will be going out broadly, widely, to people who have expressed interest,” Baklor says. ACDBEs and other small businesses will be encouraged to propose on opportunities individually or through partners, he adds.
Separately, the revelation of winners of the first band of concessions opportunities – with locations in the Eastern Concourse set to open later this year – is also imminent.
“We’ll be announcing food and beverage first with a very fast follow on the retail side,” Baklor says, adding that he hopes the announcement will come before the end of July.
“We’re very excited about it,” he adds. “It’s a strong representation of great New York brands. When we started this process, we actually conducted consumer insight research of people that had flown through LaGuardia. We started by asking what they wanted to see in the terminal. That informed our competitive solicitation process that went out in 2017.”
Baklor says the overall LGA project is going according to plan.
“Right on schedule the parking garage opened up in the first quarter of this year, and in the spring all the for-hire people moved in – like Lyft and Uber – so now all the guests can walk over a weather-protected bridge to get to their ride.
“We will be opening the first gates in the Eastern Concourse this fall,” he continues. “All in, which will push into 2019, there will be 18 gates in that concourse. The Head House (main building), which will be the major new presence, will be open in the beginning of 2020. Everything is moving along while we’re continuing to operate the existing terminal and serve all of our guests every day.”
At the Head House, guests will check in through a common-use area and one central security checkpoint, then advance to the fourth floor which will house the main commercial district, where the lion’s share of concessions will be located.
In addition to concessions, Baklor says customer amenities and experiences are under consideration.
“We are very much an O&D airport,” he says. “People don’t have long layovers, but we want to give the guest plenty of opportunities to enjoy their visit, have a reason to come early. Perhaps it’s a pay-per-use lounge, perhaps it’s just great guest experiences that are happening, such as demonstrations and interactive opportunities, which we’re testing in the existing terminal. We’re using the existing terminal as an incubator for some of these offerings to the guest.”
