Updated food concessions, gift shops have opened at Dayton airport

DAYTON — Dayton International Airport has completed a $3.3 million project to add concessions or expand or relocate them, providing a broader array of food, beverages, news and gift choices for fliers.

The project also will increase the revenue amounts that operators of the businesses pay to the airport. Under a contract amended in October 2008, the concession operators collectively must guarantee the airport a minimum of $600,000 in annual revenues, up from the prior $298,000, said Iftikhar Ahmad, Dayton’s aviation director.

The lineup includes a Dewar’s 12th Fairway Bar and Grill, Quizno’s sandwich shop, Starbucks Coffee, Dayton Marketplace and Wright Stop TravelMart in the airport’s concourses. The terminal building’s lobby features a CNBC Express news and gift shop and the newly renovated and expanded Boston Stoker Art Cafe, to complement another Boston Stoker coffee counter just to the other side of the airport’s security checkpoint.

“The place looks much, much better,” Ahmad, who oversaw the project, said Monday, Feb. 22.

It was done in response to surveys of airport customers, who said they wanted more food choices, a better mix of merchandise and concession locations closer to their flight departure gates, he said.

Prior to the project, the airport housed 23,064 square feet of concession space. That has been increased to a total of 27,432 square feet.

The airport contributed $1,557,000 of its revenues from operations to the project, while concession operators contributed a total of $1,704,000, Ahmad said.

The concession vendors are operating under a contract that runs through Dec. 31, 2018.

Don Dean, owner and founder of the Boston Stoker coffee business, said his sales at the new Boston Stoker Art Cafe have increased. Its expansion provided customer seating and an expanded menu with deli sandwiches and chili, Dean said.

“We’re selling quite a bit more food,” Dean said. “We’ve definitely improved the services to the people coming to pick up passengers.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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