Buchanan Field’s new terminal marks growth for Concord airport
CONCORD, CA (Nov. 20, 2024) — A new multi-faceted facility serving as home for the Contra Costa County Airport Division’s administrative offices and the JSX Terminal has come in for a long overdue landing.
The approximately 18,000 sq. ft. building, at 181 John Glenn Drive, includes two aircraft rescue and firefighting bays for the existing equipment, Airports Division administrative offices and a terminal area for passenger processing for the reginal airline.
The $15.6 million project started in June 2021. Prior to moving into the new facility, the Airport Division leased space from one of the on-airport businesses for many years.
Supervisor Ken Carlson recalled going to Buchanan Airport in the 1950s when his father was taking flying lessons. Looking at the latest improvements marked by the day’s ribbon cutting, Carlson saw them as “symbolic of our commitment” to the future of the airport.
Carlson represents the Board of Supervisors on the Airport Committee along with Supervisor Diane Burgis, who echoed that sentiment. She cited the various entities that have forged local relationships through the airport, such as the University of Alaska.
Economic development
The Concord airport is a part of the wider engine for economic development, early technology and job creation in the Northern California megaregion where Contra Costa County is at the heart, she added.
Karen Mitchoff calls the new airport administrative offices and JSX Terminal a happy “cap” to the projects she worked on during her years not only as a county supervisor but as chief of staff to two former supervisors.
As with any government project, she noted, their progress was dependent on grant dollars and other local funding sources, so it took time to achieve goals.
“This building is a culmination of hard work, gathering enough funding and good old blood, sweat and tears. … But we now have a building worthy of being a first-class terminal with room for growth,” said Mitchoff.
COVID rebound
The timing for the new terminal comes as Buchanan, like most airports, is finally seeing a rebound from COVID, said Kelly Kalfsbeek, community and media relations coordinator for Contra Costa County Public Works.
Passengers processed for 2023 reached 16,630 in 2023. Through August of this year, that figure was 7,811, well below a total of 11,426 passenger enplanements at the same time last year.
In stark contrast to the pleasant aesthetics of the current facility, Mitchoff recalled the old, run-down administrative building that was not at all welcoming in 1987. By the mid-1990s, a more professional and better suited environment for airport employees had taken shape on the west side of the airport.
Mitchoff views the return to the east side as the more natural location. Now that the county shares the building with JSX, which looks like a real airline terminal, “Contra Costa County citizens can rightly be proud of Buchanan Field Airport as a major player in the Northern California mega region,” she said.
David Scholz
David Scholz is back in journalism as a freelance writer and photographer after nearly two decades in education. Prior to moving into teaching in 2000, he worked as a full-time journalist since 1988 for rural community and small daily newspapers in Central Ohio and Northern Nevada, and later in California with The Business Journal in Fresno and dailies in the Bay Area, including The Oakland Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle. More recently Scholz also worked in an editing, writing, and page layout role with the Rossmoor News.