Concession developer Westfield will introduce 20 new retail and F&B destinations to Terminal 2 of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) – eight of them retail ‘firsts’ – which the company expects to produce a sales hike of over +35%.

 

Westfield has started work on a 1,490sq m (16,100sq ft) commercial area as part of the $300m revamp of T2 by LAX operator, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) – with a bigger emphasis on F&B rather than retail.

 

Partners in this space are Crews (formerly Crews of California), HMSHost, InMotion Entertainment Group, LLC, Jackmont Hospitality/Atlanta Restaurant Partners, and Paradies. The duty-free operator at T2 is DFS.

 

The redevelopment is taking place while the terminal continues to serve its 5.5m annual passengers, and it is expected to be completed in 2015 with new retail facilities being phased in incrementally.

 

Inspired by the theme ‘LA in Motion’, the T2 design vision is meant to reflect the energy and ‘on-the-go’ culture of Los Angeles. With three distinct districts, the traveller journey begins after passing security at a meandering Commercial Hub that then connects to a Dining Terrace before continuing to The Strand, an open, flowing dining and shopping district with a grand staircase leading to a mezzanine that overlooks the terminal below.

 

COMMERCIAL UNITS TO DOUBLE

This area will house double the current retail and dining destinations with shopping units rising to nine, plus 12 dining options.

 

These will include body-shaping apparel from Spanx; travel essentials at two CNBC shops; products targeted to the Hispanic traveller at two Univision shops; the latest electronics and tech items at eSavvy; and a first-ever ‘Beats Bar’ at InMotion Entertainment.

 

A bigger focus will be placed on dining with facilities such as SeaLegs Wine Bar, fast-casual seafood from Slapfish; The Pie Hole; and Barney’s Beanery, a classic American roadhouse modelled after Route 66 taking their place in the terminal.

 

“The Terminal 2 vision is to create a radically new environment that is tailor-made for, and uniquely suited to, the terminal’s travellers and its carriers,” says Dominic Lowe (left), Executive Vice President at Westfield. T2 is home to 10 domestic and international airlines, including Aeroméxico, Air Canada, Hawaiian Air and Virgin Atlantic.

 

The global developer has been steadily transforming LAX’s Terminals including 1, 2, 3, 6 and the Tom Bradley International Terminal which debuted to the public in 2013 and is the centrepiece of LAX’s multibillion dollar modernisation. TBIT features 58 dining and luxury retail shops, and phase two of the project, currently underway, includes overhauls of the departures and arrivals areas.

 

This summer, Westfield also unveiled its design vision for T6, inspired by Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Boulevard.