Airport Experience® News - ACDBE 2023

of ownership limitations agreed to prior to the pandemic, and extensions of existing agreements not to exceed five years. The city council approved similar authority as part of a relief package in 2020. Small Business Vs Small Business Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) has always had the option of leasing directly to companies and brands it wanted to specifically target for its concessions program. In the past, that has allowed DFWto court brands that weren’t likely to participate in a joint bid, says Tamela Lee, vice president of business diversity and development at DFW. Now, with its new Small Business Development Program, DFW has created a race- and gender-neutral direct lease program where small businesses can bid for space competing against each other – no large players allowed. “A lot of them say they want to be able to prime a location,” Lee says. “They want my own location, but they know they can’t compete against Paradies [Lagardère] or Hudson or HMSHost. We looked around the airport for what’s not going to be that expensive to build out and for some easier

concepts for a small business. We’ve created those opportunities where they compete among themselves.” The airport awarded its first three locations last fall as part of the program. They are: • Nowitzki’s – An entertainment bar fea turing the brand of NBA star Dirk Nowitzki in a sports/celebrity-themed restaurant. • Ampersand – a Fort Worth-based com munity-themed coffee shop committed to sustainability and involved in Fort Worx Culinary program for adults inter ested in food service careers. • The Bridge – A concept using suppliers like Black Coffee, a Black female-owned company, committed to helping the local community by combining a homeless recover center in Dallas County called Bridges and a Fort Worth program called UpSpire that aims to break the cycle of homelessness and unemployment. There’s definitely demand for the space, Lee says. The airport held a recent concessions forum in a room with the capacity to fit between 500 and 600 people and had to find an overf low room for streaming the presentation to accommodate all those interested.

Above: The Bridge, a beneficiary of a new bidding approach at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, is a concession that is committed to helping the local community.

To find new participants, DFW works with local Chambers of Commerce, retail and restaurant associations and other organizations, and then proactively approaches companies in the market that might appeal to passengers at the airport. “We’ll go talk to the owner of that particular retail or restaurant business saying ‘Hey, this is a great concept, have you ever thought about doing this in an airport?’” Once they are in, the airport offers some assistance, as well. DFW has a six-month educational program to provide potential airport partners a glimpse at what it takes to do business in the airport. “They need to understand what they are getting into,” Lee says.

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