Council approves $7 million for airport observation-deck buildout as final phase; cost and schedule questions remain

Acting Aviation Director Manny Manriquez presented a change to the Aviation Department capital improvement program to fund the buildout of an observation deck as the final phase of the airport’s Dream of Flight renovation.

Manriquez described the $7 million item as the city’s initial construction allocation for the observation-deck buildout and said construction would begin in the airport’s slow season in January. The deck will include a glassed viewing area and an outdoor patio and will be paired with a process to allow non-traveling visitors to access the secure side of the terminal via a TSA-managed credentialing system (the administration described the pass as an Aptera-based ‘‘fly-side pass’’). ‘‘There’s no cost’’ for the pass to visitors, Manriquez said; the pass still requires the standard TSA checkpoint processing.

Councilors raised multiple concerns about the item. Councilor Sanchez asked whether the $7 million is the full construction cost and who decides the guarantee maximum price (GMP); Manriquez replied that the project is a change order to the existing CMAR-managed Dream of Flight contract and that the guaranteed maximum price had not been finalized. Manriquez said the core renovation budget for the Dream of Flight project currently stood at about $89.7 million and that the observation deck allocation would be added as a change order; he said the $7 million would likely cover more than half of the deck’s construction costs but declined to provide a firm total until the CMAR establishes a GMP.

Councilor Sanchez moved to defer for two weeks to get more information on total project cost, change-order impact, schedule and public outreach; the motion initially failed on a procedural vote, and council ultimately approved the item by unanimous voice vote. Councilors who supported moving ahead said the observation deck would help the airport’s Ascend vendor program and give residents access to the airfield view they’d had historically. Councilor Fiebelkorn and others said the pass and the observation deck would also support local small businesses that operate concessions inside the terminal.

Manriquez said the airport has cleared an important regulatory step with TSA on the credentialing system and that the remaining federal security-plan amendments could take several additional weeks. He estimated the observation-deck buildout would take about a year once the construction documents and GMP are finalized.

The council’s approval added the observation-deck scope to the Dream of Flight project via a change order and authorized the $7 million allocation; council asked staff to return with a GMP and a clearer schedule as soon as it is available.