SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento International Airport (SMF) hosted its first small business outreach event Wednesday to inform local restaurants and businesses about opportunities at the airport.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants and businesses at SMF had to permanently close, leaving their spaces in the airport vacant. Each vacant space is about 30,000 square feet, so now they are looking to fill these spots with small and local businesses.
SMF has reached out to over 200 restaurants in the Sacramento region, and 35 of them attended day one of training, where they learned about lease agreements, certifications and the bidding process for spaces.
"One of the most exciting things for us as we reimagine this program is the opportunity to work with food and beverage providers to find a space that works for their concept," said Stephen Clark, the deputy director of Airport Commercial Development for Sacramento County Airport System. "What we're really trying to do is we're trying to build a program that's more representative of our entire community."
Once every 10 years or so, SMF's entire food and beverage program is renovated and turned over. Since it is approaching the 10-year mark, SMF has started to approach things with an "out with the old" and "in with the new" mentality.
"A lot of times, we have small kiosks that are going to be available that are just a couple hundred square feet, all the way up to restaurants that can be 3,000, 4,000 or 5,000 square feet, to serve fine dining," Clark said.
SMF also mentioned how their food and beverage program plans to highlight a lot more areas in our community. There is no knowledge of an exact amount of spaces available, but once these small restaurants and businesses are approved, they can start to vacate these spots between 2023 and 2024.
For more information and ways to participate, go to Sacramento.aero.
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