Moscow affirms support for new terminal

The Moscow City Council on Monday declared its support to pay as much as $2 million to help fund the new Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport terminal that is expected to be completed by the early part of 2024.

Moscow’s financial contribution to the project will not exceed that of Pullman’s, said Moscow City Supervisor Gary Riedner. Pullman city officials wills discuss their support of the project next week.

The airport also reached out to the University of Idaho, Washington State University and both Latah and Whitman counties to raise money, Riedner said.

The airport is working to raise $6.1 million from these entities in addition to paying out of its own pocket. It has budgeted $10 million for the project. The rest of the $51 million for the terminal will come from federal funding.

Airport Director Tony Bean said the $10 million is meant to pay for everything the FAA cannot fund, such as parking lots and offices.

Mead and Hunt, the architecture firm behind the terminal, took measures to save money as supply chain issues and higher construction costs raised the price of the terminal, said Mead and Hunt Department Manager Brett Kudlicki.

To save money, the terminal is now expected to be 38,000 square-feet. This is smaller than the earlier design of a 49,000 square feet building, but still significantly larger than the 8,785-square-foot existing terminal.

“It’s a little bit tighter building than it was before, but still has all the primary functions, (and) still has all the expandability that it did,” Kudlicki said. “We just sort of borrowed a little space from everywhere to get that reduction.”

Officials also sacrificed some of the additional parking space it had planned to cut costs, but those can be added in the future. The new parking lot will still provide an additional 400 spaces, Bean said

The new terminal will have room to expand in the future when needed. Bean said the building should be 54,000 square feet in 20 years to account for an increase in passengers.

The airport is planning to seek a new tenant to take over the current terminal.

Bean said the larger terminal is necessary to accommodate an expected increase in passengers and air carriers. The airport is currently seeking to add flights to Denver from United or a United-affiliated carrier. It added an Alaska Airlines flight to Boise this summer and will add a third flight to Seattle in January.

The new terminal will have three gates, a passenger boarding bridge, a concessions area and a basement. The ultimate goal is to have six gates in the future, Kudlicki said.

Bean said the airport is excited to see if it receives funds from the recently passed $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill. That money may be used to fund the terminal’s expansion later on, but he said the Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport is on a tight schedule and must go out to bid by April.

Later this year, the Moscow City Council will consider becoming a co-owner of the airport property along with Pullman, which would allow it to share in airport-related tax revenues that are not FAA revenues.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.