Denver International Airport today issued an international request for qualifications in hopes of finding a public-private partnership to kick the massive security screening apparatus overseen by the Transportation Security Administration out of the Great Hall inside the Jeppesen Terminal.
"We want to get TSA out of the hall," Kim Day said in an interview with the Denver Business Journal.
DIA officials say the TSA is supportive of the idea of moving out of the Great Hall. The design would still separate TSA-screened passengers from the general public.
Day proposed moving TSA out of the Great Hall in 2009, when it was one element of an extensive construction plan that included a new airport hotel and train station. At the time, the entire project cost was estimated at between $700 million and $950 million.
DIA officials declined to share their latest cost estimates for the airport's current proposal, which is focused on moving TSA out of the Great Hall, and emphasized that it's a different vision and scope compared to the sweeping 2009 plan.
Kenneth Ho, a director of program development at DIA, said the airport has developed a "wide range" of cost estimates for the current proposal, depending on whether a basic renovation is done or something more elaborate. And airport officials said they don't want to float their cost estimates at the risk of influencing the bids.
The airport plans to use a public-private partnership to do the work. Under the plan, the private sector's investment could be repaid with concessions revenue, with DIA potentially sharing the additional revenue realized from revitalized restaurants and retail operations in the revamped Great Hall.
The 2009 plan, and its estimated price tag, included the Great Hall renovation, a new hotel, a train station, an open-air plaza, and upgrading the planned train bridge over Pena Boulevard to something more significant and memorable.
The Great Hall renovation and the bridge ultimately were trimmed from the 2009 project, which became known as the South Terminal Project, because of cost concerns.
Now, the other elements of the 2009 proposal are nearing the finish line.
DIA is just months from opening its new 519-room Westin hotel, expected to open by Thanksgiving. The Regional Transportation District's new train from Denver Union Station to the airport is expected to start passenger operations by the summer of 2016. And the open-air plaza, attached to the train station and hotel, also is under construction.
The budget for the trimmed project now underway is estimated at $544 million, although airport officials have said they expect the final tally to be 5 percent to 10 percent higher.
And Day is again resurrecting the plan to move TSA out of the Great Hall, the area under DIA's iconic, translucent fabric tents, and upgrade the hall area with new restaurants and retail shops for passengers.
And this time, she said, DIA is hoping to use someone else's money, via a public-private partnership, to pay for the renovation.
Airport officials say the private partner could be repaid for its investment in the project over time, using the additional money realized from passengers spending more of their money in new shops in a more inviting Great Hall.
As for the TSA, the plan calls for the security screening systems to be moved from the floor of the Great Hall to unused areas of the ticketing lobbies on Level 6, which also would be reconfigured.
The general public, those who don't have tickets to travel, also would have access to some portion of the renovated Great Hall, according to Day and airport officials.
DIA floated its plan before potential contractors at a meeting on Jan. 13 and officials say they're pleased with the response.
The meeting drew 155 attendees, including representatives from 10 large national and international firms that said they are willing to be take the lead on the project as the prime contractor, said Julie Wienberg, a director of program development at DIA.
"This could be considered a showcase project" for international firms to demonstrate to U.S. officials what they can do, Wienberg said.
The airport is asking potential bidders to submit both a physical plan for the renovation and a financial plan on how to pay for it, Ho said.
Whether DIA would be willing to add its own money into the project budget, if needed, is "an open question" right now, Wienberg said.
Several factors are driving the plan — including the public's incorrect perception that security wait times are longer at DIA compared to other airports and passengers' discomfort with taking off shoes, belts and jackets to go through security in "a fishbowl," according to Day and airport officials.
"Our customers, the passengers, have complained about it," Day said.
"It's a perception issue. Today, they go to the top of the stairs, look down, and see all those lines — it looks like the lines are longer, and take longer, than they really do. Also, passengers don't like to disrobe in that area — even taking their shoes off — because of everyone watching," she said.
Said Ho: "Before 9-11, it was a nice, serene area with a small footprint for security, and the intent was for it to be the living room of the airport.
"As you experience it now, it's a waiting room with wall-to-wall security. That lost opportunity is our Number One priority: We want to reclaim the Great Hall from security," Ho said.
As for the security wait time, Ho said DIA's times are below average, "but because people can see the line they perceive it to be longer than it is."
Another factor driving the plan is the desire to boost passenger spending in the Great Hall — and the revenue DIA would see from that.
"When we get the TSA out, that opens up the Great Hall to the potential for new uses for generating revenue," Wienberg said.
Non-airline revenue, the money airports realize from shops, restaurants, parking and other revenue streams, has become more important to airport operations nationwide in the last few years. Airlines pay to operate at an airport, and the more money an airport can raise from retail operations means the less money airlines have to pay to land passenger-filled jets.
DIA's operating revenue was about $700 million in 2014, of which 54 percent, or $381 million came from the airlines that use the airport. The remaining 46 percent, $319 million, comes from retail and other non-airline operations — and that figure has been climbing in recent years, according to DIA.
But shops and restaurants now in the Great Hall generate about 50 percent less per square foot than their retail counterparts on the concourses — on the other side of the security screening systems, according to DIA.
Wienberg and Ho, who have been working on the Great Hall project for months, say they believe there's room for TSA security screening operations if Level 6, the ticketing and baggage check-in level, is reconfigured. Currently, long sections of the ticketing counters sit empty and unused.
"The ticket level is underutilized," Ho said.
That's due mostly to changes in technology in the 20 years since DIA opened and the rise of passengers checking themselves in and tagging their own baggage, he said.
"The days of coming to the airport and checking in and checking bags is over," Ho said.
"Today, people are using more kiosk technology and we've found that the technology not only increases the speed of passenger processing but also the accuracy. If you're tagging your own bag, you're going to make sure it's going to the right airport. Customers and airlines like it, and it reduces the staff that's required.
"We think we can decrease the ticketing space by 25 to 35 percent and maintain or increase the passenger-processing capacity," Ho said.
Said Wienberg: "We're taking space that the airlines don't need or don't want and would like to give back."
Potential bidders have an April 1 deadline to submit their qualifications and proposals. DIA expects to issue a formal request for proposals to a short-list of qualified bidders in the second quarter, followed by one-on-one meetings with the selected teams to go over details about the plans and the financing, Ho said.
But DIA officials also said the airport can halt the process at any time if it doesn't appear that the proposals would work.
"We want to make sure that this works for the city," Ho said.
"We'll have the deal terms worked out before the selection so we can move directly to contract and have a notice to proceed hopefully by the end of the year or early 2016," he said.
And, according to the presentation DIA gave at the Jan. 13 industry forum, the newly renovated Great Hall could be substantially complete by the first quarter of 2019.