QCIA project will help create a new Gateway to the future

The Quad Cities International Airport has not only launched the initial phase of Project Gateway –  the first public-facing terminal modernization at the Moline airport in nearly 40 years – it also has its eyes set on the future. The regional airport is planning its multi-year, multi-phase, $40 million to $60 million construction master plan […]

The Quad Cities International Airport has not only launched the initial phase of Project Gateway –  the first public-facing terminal modernization at the Moline airport in nearly 40 years – it also has its eyes set on the future. The regional airport is planning its multi-year, multi-phase, $40 million to $60 million construction master plan while working to become a leader in the international aeronautical industry, QCIA Executive Director Benjamin Leischner told the QCBJ in a wide-ranging interview that included Ashleigh Davis, QCIA’s public relations and marketing manager. The pair shared an overview of those and other projects that leaders of the QCIA and its governing body, the Metropolitan Airport Authority of Rock Island County, have in the works and in the pipeline. That starts with construction of Project One of Project Gateway, which kicked off at a ceremonial April 4 groundbreaking. Mortenson is Project Gateway’s construction manager at risk.  The national firm specializes in publicly visible projects, Ms. Davis said. For example, it has done multiple University of Iowa projects through its Iowa City-Coralville office. Its work includes the Xtream Arena & GreenState Family Fieldhouse, a multi-purpose facility that boasts retail, office space and a 5,100-seat arena. Mortenson Market Executive Randy Clarahan is leading the QCIA project. “Mortenson is excited for the launch of this initial phase of Project Gateway,” he said at the ceremonial launch on Thursday, April 4.  “I called the Quad Cities home for 20 years. I raised my kids here in the Quad Cities. I know how important this Quad Cities airport is to families, to businesses, to getting around, so I’m thrilled to be a part of that,” he added. He said he’s also pleased to be working with the airport’s talented staff and Quad Cities contractors including Davenport-based Estes Construction and the local trades to make it happen.  The first phase of Project One includes modernizing the oldest parts of the airport’s passenger facility. The project area, which includes the ticketing counters, was last updated in 1985 prior to the establishment of Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the invention of the rollaboard suitcase, and the Americans with Disability Act, Mr. Leischner said. And Project One’s construction schedule is designed in two phases to make it as easy on passengers as possible. “We don’t want people to be frustrated because one of the biggest differentiators that we have as an airport is how easy it is to get through our airport, how quick it is. We can’t lose that,” Ms. Davis said.  “Yes, we think the end result will be worth it and in the end it provides a lot of value, but we still have to think about that for the next several years,” she added. “How do we make sure that we’re still that quick, easy to navigate facility that we are known for?” Overall, the Project Gateway terminal master plan consists of about five smaller projects, she said. Project One will take TSA’s baggage screening devices and processes out of public view. The change has been requested for years by Homeland Security and TSA. “It wasn’t something that we ignored, but it was something that there was really no easy way to fix” with the ticket area’s current configuration, Mr. Leischner said. To change that, Project Gateway will add a 15,000-square-foot baggage security addition behind the existing ticket counters. 

A taste of what’s to come

QCIA leaders also worked with Mortenson to add upgraded passenger ticket counters to Project One which is expected to take about 12 months to complete.   “So instead of making it completely behind the scenes, this is actually going to come from right in front of the ticket counters back,” Mr. Leischner said. That will give passengers a taste of the new design when they print tickets, see a customer service agent and check their bag, he said. But even as phase one provides customers and employees with some welcome new spaces, “I imagine it’s also going to make some of the other things that we always joke about – like our brown brick floors – it’s going to make those dreadfully obvious,” he said, especially against the “bright beautiful terrazzo floors that are part of our new design.” The passenger area brick floors won’t be replaced right away, but new ones are coming as is a new ticket lobby with light, bright finishings and open ceilings, Ms. Davis said.  “Everything is going to be paired with our sense of place,” Mr. Leischner said. That “sense of place” has its roots in a 2021 brand setting session conducted in partnership with Visit Quad Cities and its President and CEO Dave Herrell.   “We got a group of some really smart, creative people together and we went through some exercises to come up with almost like an authentic brand for the airport and for the Quad Cities,” Mr. Leischner said. “We came up with transportation themes and what it came down to was river, road, rail and air and so the architect found materials that they felt best pulled through those themes,” Ms. Davis  said. “You see where there are those darker panels, that’s actually fluted wood because it mimics the agricultural fields being tilled,” she said while pointing to architectural drawings of the new ticketing areas. The design also includes modern and industrial finishings to reflect the region’s manufacturing base.  The redesign also will soon standardize the look of QCIA’s airline partners. “Right now they have different signs of different sizes,” Ms. Davis said. In addition to a cleaner look, the changes will ensure that “if airlines move or new airlines are introduced, it allows us to very easily flex the space to accommodate that.”  Project Gateway is not “overly fancy,” Mr. Leischner said. “I would compare it almost to health care where it’s going to be easy to clean.” And its features are not extravagant. “We’re a transportation facility,” he added. “We just want it to be functional but we also want it to be future-proof,” which is important for a rapidly changing industry. Project Gateway also is not being financed by local taxpayers or passengers, QCIA leaders stressed, but through federal capital and entitlement funds. And those leaders are making sure that Project Gateway is both sustainable and efficient. The new luggage security building, for example, will use in-ground heat generated by recycled glycol from the QCIA’s existing boilers. “So it’s almost a zero cost to heat and maintain,” Mr. Leischner said.  He added that the airport has been rapidly decreasing its annual energy consumption costs, which for the last few years had been around $600,000. And though the airport invested nearly half a million dollars over the past five years in energy efficiency, he added, “the return on investment payback was right at one year.” Projects have included a “huge solar installation of solar photovoltaic rays.” Thanks to the two megawatt solar cells on the terminal and parking lot rooftops, about 50% of QCIA’s energy consumption comes from locally sourced solar power, Mr. Leischner said.

Project One just the start

Project One is expected to take about a year to complete. At the same time, Mortenson will be working on designs for the next several phases. They include a redesigned curb front and lobby areas and upgrading the facility’s central core. The latter will include expanding restrooms with companion care restrooms, nursing mother suites, more meeting space, adding new concessionaire space for food and beverage and retail, and an outdoor canopy. 

Timing will be based on the federal investment QCIA can pull into the project through future entitlements and the bipartisan infrastructure law which provides $2.8 billion a year nationwide for terminal and airport development.  Illinois does not have a similar pot of funding for airports despite their importance to the state and the communities they served, Mr. Leischner said.  “What it really boils down to is we are an economic engine in the community,” he added. “We are generating just shy of $700 million annual value to the community and one of the ways we really do that is by pulling federal investment into the community, working with local labor or local contractors to build these projects, which then amplifies that investment through induced and indirect return.” And, he said, “Even if you don’t travel every day or fly on the airlines, there’s certain amenities in our community that simply would not exist if we weren’t here.” He added “I think Deere is a great example. Deere is a global company. Having their headquarters here would not work well if the Quad Cities International Airport was not here.” Overall, he said, aviation is just shy of a $100 billion industry in Illinois, “yet everything from air cargo to commercial airlines … are relying on scraps from other funds, investment here or there.” State legislation, Illinois Senate Bill 3699, has been introduced to create an aviation capital program. Illinois State Sen. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, is a co-sponsor. If approved, investing those dollars would create value for Quad Cities residents and others doing business in the state, Mr. Leischner added.  That investment also would benefit the 80 or so airport employees and the nearly 1,400 Quad Citians who come to work every day on the airport property at tenants such as Elliott Aviation, John Deere, the Air Traffic Control Tower, the U.S. Postal Service regional sorting facility and private business in an industrial park that includes Group O. 

What’s ahead at QCIA?

These days QCIA also is looking for ways to increase the regional airport’s value as an aerospace manufacturing hub. That includes trying to pull together a Quad Cities delegation to travel to the July 22-26 Farnborough International Airshow. The event – which will be held this year in Hampshire, England – is one of the largest international gatherings of aerospace manufacturers in the world. “We have a runway that’s two miles long that can land any airplane in the world in any weather conditions,” Mr. Leischner told the QCBJ. “We have hundreds of acres of aeronautical development space that have access to the interstate freeways within a mile or two. We have the Mississippi River that has room for barge traffic to get large components up and down the river from anyplace in the world.” In short, he said, “there are fewer and fewer communities on the map that have the resources that we have already.” The effort to grow aerospace manufacturing here came about during the airport’s push to get support from Illinois to investigate a spaceport. “There is no commercial value today in being a commercial spaceport, zero,” Mr. Leischner told the QCBJ. “But 15 years from now, 20 years from now, 10 years from now we don’t know what the future is going to hold. And it is so important that we start thinking ahead.” For this regional airport, its executive director said, “The No. 1 (consideration) in this is we don’t want to commit to some kind of development or use of our facility that limits our ability to leverage those opportunities in the future.” As he told Gov. J.B. Pritzker in successfully campaigning for the spaceport study funding, Mr. Leischner said, “We don’t have a roadmap for aviation in this space. You can’t do it in Chicago because the air space is so saturated. But look what we have here. We have controlled air space, we’ve got tons of space around us. We’ve got a very strong laborshed with nearly half a million people in the Quad Cities proper.”