Sioux Falls Regional Airport starts concourse project, pursues potential c-store, office development

Foundation work on the concourse expansion at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport is expected to start next week, and the airport is exploring options for additional commercial development on its campus.

September passenger traffic set up a record for the month, despite a 5.3 percent drop in available seats. Traffic ended up 2.4 percent versus last September.

“Every flight was full,” airport executive director Dan Letellier said. “It was great to see given the number of available seats for sale was down.”

Year-to-date, air traffic is up 7.2 percent.

An expansion of the airport’s cargo apron is wrapping up is first phase of construction and underground infrastructure work for the second phase is starting because “they’re going to try to get a lot accomplished before they start in earnest in the spring,” Letellier said.

Underground work also has started for the concourse expansion, with the hope of starting foundation work next week, “so it is moving along,” Letellier said.

New commercial development pursued

A request for qualifications was issued recently looking for gas station/convenience store owner operators as well as retail or commercial developers interested in pursuing projects on airport-owned property at the entrance to the main terminal.

“Hopefully we have several proposals in hand that we can bring forward to the board to decide next steps,” Letellier said.

There’s about 3 acres available, which would be enough for a two-story office building totaling about 16,000 square feet as well as a gas station, convenience store and potential car wash, said Steve Watson, managing partner at TetonRidge Consulting, which was hired by the airport to manage the RFQ process.

With the proposed gas station and convenience store,”the airport feels like it’s important to improve the visitor experience by offering those types of amenities to the traveling public, so we’d like to see some grab-and-go food offerings and fuel as part of that,” Watson said.

“The other potential opportunity is an office building. We believe there’s a number of vendors in other businesses that do work at the airport or in proximity to the airport that would like to have office space at the airport but aren’t a fit for the terminal.”

The RFQ recently was sent to several regional c-store operators and developers.

“We just sent it out, but we are starting to get questions,” Watson said. “I’m encouraged by the level of interest that there is in the market for it.”

RFQs are due to steve@tetonridgellc.com by 5 p.m. Dec. 5, though those interested in applying are asked to indicate their intent to submit by Nov. 7.

Global entry enrollment center coming

The Sioux Falls Regional Airport also will be getting a global entry enrollment center, Letellier said.

The location will be a place where applicants for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Global Entry program can complete an in-person interview after applying online. The centers are a step in completing the process for expedited clearance when re-entering the United States.

“Most of it is done online, but it does require an in-person interview with CBT (and) access to those interviews can be difficult,” Letellier said. “I think Omaha and Minneapolis are currently the two closets and it may be six-plus months to try to get in for an interview.”

The Sioux Falls center will allow passengers to schedule times for an interview and its opening follows some success one and two-day events here, he said.

“There have been people from Minneapolis, North Dakota, all over to this one-day event jus because it is so difficult to get scheduled for these interviews,” Letellier said.

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