Sixteen new stores and nine new restaurants have opened in the first nine months of a wide-ranging food and retail redevelopment project at Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport. At their monthly board meeting on Wednesday, directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority received an update on the process of the conversion and reconstruction of concessions at both airports. Passengers can now enjoy a dining and shopping experience that offers a sampling of the major changes yet to come. More than 150 new food and retail concepts will be developed through early 2016.

The latest example is the opening of Legal Sea Foods at Reagan National, where a ribbon-cutting celebration followed Wednesday’s board meeting. Board members and executives from the Airports Authority and MarketPlace Development, the company managing the transformation process, joined Legal Sea Foods CEO Roger Berkowitz to welcome the restaurant to its new two-level location next to the airport’s central pre-security location in National Hall.

Pictured from left: MWAA President and CEO Jack Potter, MWAA Concessions Manager Sandra Greene, MWAA Vice President for Business Administration Steve Baker, Legal Sea Foods President and CEO Roger Berkowitz, MarketPlace Development President Paul McGinn, MWAA Vice Chairman Warner Session

Speaking at the ribbon-cutting, Airports Authority Vice Chairman Warner Session said, “We are enhancing the options for our customers by providing fresh, healthy and exciting food options and giving them shopping opportunities that provide for their travel needs and wants.” Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter added, “We are improving the passenger experience by expanding the selection of choices so no matter what they’re looking for, we provide it.”

One of the most dramatic changes completed in recent weeks was an overnight conversion of all concessions in Reagan National’s Terminal A to new food and retail brands that will provide a taste of what’s to come when final construction is completed next year. The New York, N.Y. contractor, OTG, produced a time-lapse video highlighting the overnight transformation. The pace of openings at Dulles is also beginning to increase with seven food/retail locations currently under construction.

New locations opened so far:

• Reagan National - Brighton Collectibles, Vineyard Vines, Legal Sea Foods, Washingtonian newsstand, CNBC newsstand, Hudson News (three locations), Forbes newsstand, NBC4 newsstand, Cibo Express (two locations) and Temporary Terminal A locations for World Bean, District Bar, Meridian Deli, Tagilare, Gallery Bar.

 

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• Dulles International – Forbes newsstand, Washingtonian News, The Firkin & Fox, Luv’nberry, Tumi, Swarovski, Auntie Anne’s, NBC4 Newsstand.

Ongoing updates about construction and opening of new food and shops locations are available online for Reagan National and Dulles International.

Additionally, at its monthly meeting, the Airports Authority Board of Directors received updates on multiple ongoing projects, including the first phase of the Silver Line Metrorail Project, which is undergoing testing by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. On the aviation front at Dulles, Air China launched nonstop flights from to Beijing, United began seasonal daily service to Madrid and Frontier announced that its service beginning later this year will also include four flights per week to Cleveland, Ohio. At Reagan National, JetBlue will initiate service to Charleston, S.C.; Hartford, Conn.; and Nassau, Bahamas on Thursday.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, established in 1987 by the governments of Virginia and the District of Columbia, manages and operates Ronald Reagan Washington National and Washington Dulles International airports, which together serve more than 40 million passengers a year. The Airports Authority also operates and maintains the Dulles Airport Access Road and the Dulles Toll Road and manages construction of the Silver Line project, a 23-mile extension of the Washington region’s Metrorail system into Loudoun County, Va. No tax dollars are used to operate the toll road, which is funded by toll revenues, or the airports, which are funded through aircraft landing fees, rents and revenues from concessions. The Silver Line construction is funded by a combination of toll-road revenues, airport contributions and federal, state and local government appropriations. The Airports Authority is led by a 17-member board of directors, appointed by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, the mayor of Washington, D.C., and the president of the United States, and generates more than 387,000 jobs and 4.5 percent of GDP in the National Capital Region.