Memphis airport readies for $214 million, three-year overhaul of B Concourse

The Memphis International Airport's most transformative era since 1963 has arrived.

The aging spine of airport’s old Delta and Northwest hub is tentatively scheduled to shut down by March for a three-year reconstruction.

Preparations for a $214 million modernization of 55-year-old B Concourse have been underway for a couple of years. But airport officials have lately accelerated the chess moves of gates, concessions and amenities to temporarily serve all passengers in the A and C concourses.

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By the end of February, Memphis International Airport’s two biggest carriers, Delta and Southwest, will be operating out of A gates. Delta is moving out of B, as is Allegiant, a leisure market carrier that’s joining American and United in C Concourse.

As passengers waiting for 75-80 daily departures gather in the airport’s two smaller concourses, it will at times re-create the busyness that existed before Delta phased out its hub in 2013.

“It will remind us of the old days when it was a hub, during the push,” said Donald Brown, who works in the airport authority’s development department. “We think we’ve accommodated it the best that we can, and we’ve made every effort to expand the restrooms, make the hold rooms as big as possible, increase the seating wherever it makes sense.”

Airport Authority board member Jack Sammons said, “We are at the dawn of immense change in this organization, and as we shoehorn everybody into A and C, there are going to be some folks in this community who are so excited that the airport all of a sudden is busy.”

“Other people are going to (complain) that the Starbucks is 500 yards away or there’s not a barbecue joint on both sides, so I think it’s important that all of us communicate with our region here and let them know things are getting better,” Sammons said.

Once the new B Concourse reopens — with higher ceilings, more natural light, wider corridors, new concessions, additional moving walkways and other amenities — all of the big carriers will operate out of its 23 gates.

The airport advertised the project to contractors last week.

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A tentative timeline, which officials cautioned is subject to change, calls for contractor selection in June and partial demolition of the B Concourse in July.

Plans call for the Y-shaped B Concourse’s spine and eastern prong to be stripped down to the floor then used as a base for new construction.

The original B Concourse opened in 1963 as part of a terminal construction project designed to move Memphis into the “jet age.” It had 22 gates to serve seven airlines.

The modernization is part of an effort to right-size the airport to reflect a new reality of serving people who are traveling to or from Memphis, not connecting passengers as in the hub's heyday.

The completed B Concourse will be adequate to handle a 50-percent increase in the airport’s current traffic, and surplus gates in A and C will be mothballed.

In preparation for B’s closing, Starbucks has opened in a connecting corridor between B and A Concourse, which is currently Starbucks-less. The coffee stand is alongside an Urban Market, seller of grab-and-go snacks and other items, and a PGA Tour Shops. A Starbucks in the B rotunda and Ciao grab-and-go won't close until B Concourse shuts down.

A new Cinnabon “wall hugger” store opened before Christmas next to Moe’s Southwest Grill in Concourse C, between gates C12 and C14. It features pre-packaged treats baked at concessionaire HMS Host’s kitchen on the airport property.

A flurry of December construction made sure military lounges were up and running in all three concourses before Christmas. Lounges for nursing mothers will be paired with the military lounges.

Around the end of February, Lenny’s Sub Shop is scheduled to move from B to A, and a new Italian/pizza restaurant Torn Basil will open in A. A kiosk-style bar will open at the south end of C Concourse around the same time.

As Sammons alluded to, it will be a longer walk from relocated Delta gates to Interstate Bar-B-Que, which moved from B Concourse to gate C6 in an earlier phase of modernization moves.

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Airport crews have refurbished and expanded hold rooms — seating areas surrounding airline departure/arrival gates — to create nine gate positions in A Concourse: six for Delta, three for Southwest. Carpeting was extended into the corridor to squeeze more seats into each hold room, and extra seats line unused walls.

Men’s, women’s and family restrooms in A Concourse are being enlarged.

“You’re talking two of our top three carriers will be operating here, with everyone else over on C,” said airport director of Glen Thomas. “It will definitely be significantly increased traffic. We’re going to have some busy hallways here.”

A lot of work passengers will never see; this includes the apron-level, business end of gates, where airline ground crews and equipment are housed.

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Nine jet bridges that connect gates to aircraft in the A Concourse have been refurbished. They were salvaged from gates that had fallen idle elsewhere in the airport.

“Basically (it’s) as you would think about refurbishing an old house,” said Brown. “Tearing it down to the bones, replace the electrical, all the interiors, new paint, new mechanicals, what raise and lower, what spin the wheels on the bottom, new air conditioning for the planes, new power sources for the planes, the same things you would see in a house refurbishment.”

Brown added, “We spent money to keep them operational for three or four years, knowing that some of them are going to be abandoned” when the new B concourse comes online.

Another part of preparations that will likely be taken for granted is replacement of baggage carousels in the B Terminal. Two carousels were completed before Christmas and the other two are in the works. Once airlines consolidate in B Concourse, the baggage conveyors to B Terminal will carry the load.

Brown said, “What we’ve done is we’ve gone in and replaced everything mechanical, all the controls, to give a kind of newer, smarter version of bag handling, but it’s basically an upgrade of what we’ve had for the past 25 years, in anticipation of moving all of the baggage to B at some point.”

Reach reporter Wayne Risher at (901) 529-2874 or wayne.risher@commercialappeal.com.