A Love Letter to Local Business
We spoke with Kaitlin Hunter, Sr. Manager of Concessions for the Port of Portland about her team’s efforts to curate a local food, beverage, retail and services program for the newly renovated Portland International Airport (PDX)—and how the Port’s commitment to shared prosperity benefits visitors, residents and small businesses in the Pacific Northwest.
Can you tell us about the guiding vision for vendor curation at the new PDX?
The main terminal was designed to feel like a Pacific NW forest (the timber for the nine-acre roof in the main terminal was all sustainably sourced from within a 300-mile radius) and the concourses to feel like city streetscapes in Portland with the shops and businesses you’d see in downtown Portland or on a walk around one of our neighborhoods. Our program has always tried to focus on local businesses, but the redesign provided an elevated opportunity to showcase the many small businesses that make Oregon such a wonderful place to live. And it was a great chance to focus on shared prosperity.
What does shared prosperity mean at the Port of Portland?
The Port of Portland concessions program has always had an emphasis on shared prosperity—we’ve always been focused on helping develop small businesses, working to provide opportunities to previously underserved or underrepresented communities and giving back to the community—but over the last few years, shared prosperity has become embedded in the vision of the Port of Portland as a whole. Shared prosperity also means partnering with the community on projects and holding the companies we contract with to a high standard of equity.
Most airports have a master concession contractor who builds and operates all of the vendor locations through license agreements or subleases. We don’t do that at the Port. The majority of our contracts are direct leases with the owners of the individual companies and that makes our program feel authentic to Oregon and allows us to diversify and help small local businesses succeed at the airport.
How did you choose which businesses to invite to be part of the new PDX?
We wanted to be sure the brands that were here before the renovation were able to be part of the new PDX. We directly negotiated with those businesses to keep them and then we did a Request for Proposal (RFP) process for new businesses. In 2022, we did a social media push to get the community involved in deciding which businesses they wanted to see in the airport. Then my team spent hours talking to these businesses to gauge interest and ability to operate a business in PDX ahead of the RFP process.
We had a selection committee of internal and external partners—including a representative from Travel Oregon—who decided which businesses to invite by ranking proposals based on concept, viability, financial statements, community involvement and the employer/employee relationships plan of each business. In addition to wanting the vendors to be the right fit for the airport and ensuring they could succeed, we also wanted to enter into contracts with local businesses we knew would treat their employees well in terms of wages, benefits, hours and policies.
What kind of economic impact will an airport location have on the Oregon businesses chosen?
I think the biggest impact is the massive amount of exposure these local businesses will get. Take Paper Epiphanies, for example—it’s a small, woman-owned business with one other location in SE Portland and now they are front and center for approximately 17 million people coming through the airport every year from all over the world. It’s just an incredible way for these businesses to get their names out there.
It’s exciting for these small businesses but it’s also a challenge to operate a location in an airport. Airport businesses have logistical issues that storefronts in town don’t have, such as longer operating hours, employee retention challenges and more. So, there’s a balancing act—the exposure is incredible, but the business has to be able to meet the challenges of operating in the airport, invest in building out the space, ensure consistent staffing and more.
We knew if we wanted an authentic, hyper-local focus and were committed to shared prosperity, we would need to help support some of the businesses invited into the program. In the main terminal, you’ll notice two small shops currently occupied by OROX Leather Co. and Missionary Chocolates. We’ll be using this space to highlight small businesses that may not be large enough (yet) to invest in a permanent space. The Port will provide short-term leases, finished spaces including retail fixtures and incur most of the start-up costs for them so they can gain experience in the complexities of operating a location in an airport.
What are you most proud of about the new terminal?
We have 24 new locations and 30 percent of those are at least partially women-owned businesses. That makes me really proud. I have a team of incredible women who put this program together and to be able to include so many powerful female business owners warms my heart.
I’m so proud of all the hard work that’s gone into the new concession locations. Some of these business owners have been out here every day. It’s a huge win for them but it’s also a huge commitment and they’ve put so much effort into this. And our crew at the Port has spent so many hours being here for these businesses. It would have been much easier if it had been all taken care of for us with a master concession agreement, but we wanted to establish a new trend in the airport industry because of how authentic that would be—how very Oregon we could make it if we went the extra mile.
Our industry pricing also makes us different. All vendors are obligated to charge the same prices at the airport as they do on the street in Portland. This is great for visitors and a cornerstone of our program. Most airports charge street rates plus an extra 10 or 20% on top of that. We don’t do that at PDX. You pay at the airport what you would pay in town.
Why should Oregonians care about our new airport?
Beyond the positive economic impact on Oregon businesses, it gives the local community something to be proud of. We’ve worked so hard on this new facility. It reflects Portland and Oregon in general and the community has rallied behind it as a great source of pride. We all know Portland has had a challenging time since the pandemic, but we have done so many great things, too, and this effort is such an awesome representation of our community and what it’s like to be part of it. It’s inspiring and I think it will invigorate the city. I’ve already heard other airports want to replicate what we’ve created here and pilots are flying in telling passengers PDX is the best airport in the country. That’s something to be proud of.
Learn more about all the new things at PDX.