Airport Experience® News - Customer Service Issue 2023

LATEST BUZZ

Right: PSP captures a sense of place with its indoor/outdoor facilities. New concessions offerings will enhance the local feel.

passenger space for their growing travel population through a design update to the Sonny Bono Concourse gate hold rooms. “While the footprint of the building is still going to stay the same, it was opened in 1999 and it hasn’t really been renovated until now,. It just screams ‘90s,” laughs Meier. To remedy the retro design, the PSP team is working with architects from Gensler to create additional passenger circulation areas, put in new flooring, and lighting and rearrange and add gate podiums. “It’s not a total renovation, but it’s a nice rehab,” says Meier of the construction, which is set to be completed in early 2024. “We’re bringing the area into looking more like it’s 2023.” Gensler’s vision “was to reflect the mid-century modern architecture found in Palm Springs by capturing the iconic roof profiles — specifically the ‘butterfly’ roof profile within the design of the new gate podiums,” says Neil McLean, senior associate at Gensler. “Additionally, the podium profiles emulate the local mountains that surround the Coachella Valley, forming the backdrop for the city and airport.”

Materials selected by Gensler were chosen to “reflect the local modern architecture with clean, defined lines and textured areas applied to the podium, much like the application you see on modern buildings across the city,” he adds. The design in both the original terminal building and the landscaped central courtyard “is intended to reinforce the history and vacation friendly experience of Palm Springs by recalling the architecture and natural environment travelers experience during their visit,” says McLean. In addition to concourse upgrades, the PSP team plans to overhaul its other popular amenities, spending $4.1 million on a locally focused retail buildout and $11.3 million in concessions updates. The combination of

Covid-closed restaurants and increased passenger traffic necessitated a new vision for PSP’s retail and dining program, says Meier, noting that “we had times that passengers would show up to the airport wanting to grab something to eat before they got on the plane, and the wait to get a table was sometimes up to an hour and a half. You can’t wait an hour and a half just to get your table and eat and still make a flight.” After a previous vendor left during Covid 19 shutdowns, Paradies Lagardère stepped in to operate the airport’s concessions, Meier says. In 2022, the PSP team sent out an RFP for both dining and retail, agreeing to work with Paradies Lagardère and Marshall Retail Group ( WH Smith ) to renovate the airport’s existing restaurants as well as develop a new portfolio of food and retail offerings. “The overarching theme that was really important to the airport commission and our city council was making sure that our airport felt like Palm Springs and the Valley,” says Meier of the concessions program, which will be rolling out new concepts throughout the next year. In addition to new restaurants — the bar Cactus to Clouds, named after the hiking trail by the area’s Mount San Jacinto, as well as a Palm Springs Aerial Tramway inspired bistro featuring Joshua Tree Coffee Company and The Shoppe Ice Cream — Palm Springs locals will recognize airport outposts of area favorites Trio, El Mirasol, and Coachella Valley Coffee Company. PSP’s current restaurants are being rebranded, too. Gate 20’s Buzz by Bar Fly will become Coachella Valley craft beer haven Nine Cities Craft, while the PSP Coffee House and Wine Bar will transform into new restaurant and wine bar Vino Volo. “We really want to put an emphasis on

Left: Like most of the new concessions offerings at PSP, retail stores Hey Joshua and Uptown Essentials draw heavily on the Palm Springs sense of place.

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AX NEWS CUSTOMER SERVICE ISSUE 2023