May 3—EAST WENATCHEE — Those flying on private airplanes into Pangborn Memorial Airport might enter a different terminal soon.
Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority commissioners on Tuesday agreed to hire ALSC Architects for $474,258 to design, provide additional services and reimbursable expenses.
The firm was one of four competing for the project at the Pangborn Memorial Airport General Aviation Terminal Building. This is not the building used by Horizon Air or other commercial planes.
Port staff indicated they chose Spokane-based ALSC for its "creative approach to the project" and "aviation and adaptive reuse experience," according to a memo from Stacie de Mestre, the port's public works and capital projects manager, to commissioners. The other firms were The DOH Associates, Forte Architects, both of Wenatchee, and Portland-based Livermore Architecture & Engineering Inc.
The port set aside $3.5 million to remodel the 1960s-era building in its 2022 budget, said Jim Kuntz, port CEO, and a large portion of that will carry into next year's budget. Most of the project likely will come from the port's operating fund, he added. However, commissioners have "not determined yet how to fund the actual remodel costs," he wrote in an email, which could actually be around $4.5 million. The cost won't be known until the project is bid, he wrote.
The port has applied for Federal Aviation Administration "terminal building grant dollars," he wrote, as well as some congressionally-directed funding, which could be around $1 million.
"Our goal is to get this project bid this fall and have a solid budget number to include in the 2023 budget," he wrote.
ALSC submitted renderings of what the remodel could look like, called "The Reach," and "The Pearl." But those approaches may not be used, Kuntz said, and commissioners will decide after going to bid whether to proceed.
"The condition of that current building is just unacceptable," Kuntz said at Tuesday's meeting. "There's a lot of momentum going with the National Guard."
He said regardless of the National Guard coming to Wenatchee, residents and visitors deserved to have a better terminal building, and it would make the airport look better for any potential airlines that might add stops.
"It's a lot of money. It's basically, we're pretty much committing to this project by lighting the wick today to get this thing designed," Kuntz said. "It's in the budget, we talked about it. ...Let's get it designed, let's get it out to bid, and at that point we can make decisions on bids."
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