Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2024

DIRECTOR’S CHAIR

Left, Below: DAB’s open and airy terminal is designed to optimize the customer experience, with natural light, a water feature and other amenities evoking a vacation vibe.

our business center is unique because not only is it a gorgeous place to sit and either do work or just have some quiet time, but we partner with our library system and they provide books that they’ve taken out of circulation, and those books are available for the passengers. Passengers can just take a book, no need to return it. They also have a QR code where you can download music or movies or magazine articles. We’ve focused a lot on the inside of the terminal, and now we’re focusing on the outside of the terminal. We have recently completed a huge parking project. One of the other main things is the signage –the wayfinding [is being modernized]. WARD: Do you have plenty of space with no need for additional gates at this point? FEASTER: Traffic is growing. The community is growing so much and there are exciting things happening. We’re starting to work on a terminal expansion. We’re the pre-design phase right now. WARD: In the terminal, who operates your concessions? FEASTER: For food and beverage and news and gift, we have Faber Coe & Gregg ( Faber International ) out of New Jersey. For advertising we use Clear Channel . We just renewed the Faber contract. They’re up 15%, so they’re doing great. Another unique thing that we have at our airport is a gorgeous meeting room

that overlooks the airfield. We have a lot of community functions that come in and they get to cater it. WARD: You touched on the land development earlier, but tell me a little bit more about what you’re envisioning? FEASTER: We have over 300 acres available on the south side of the property. Location-wise, we are right at the intersection of I-4 and I-95 – that is a

huge plus when trying to lease property. We have a 54-acre site or parcel that we are in the process of getting site ready. We’ve already broken ground, and we’re bringing utilities to it and getting it in a more buildable state. Embry Riddle is [embarking on] a big project (undisclosed at press time) – a game-changer that is really going to increase the demand for our property.

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AX NEWS JUNE 2024