City seeks to improve airport concessions process

"This time around," Smith said, "if your form is incorrect, you're going to be deemed non-responsive," and disqualified.

In response to questions about whether politics played a role in the decision by the city to restart the process, Smith said, "We're not trying to give this to anybody in particular."

Some of the concessionaires say the city's decision to start over again is costly for them and takes up valuable time for the airport as it works toward opening the international terminal next spring.

"What if something else happens?" said Charisma Williams, who runs a design firm specializing in airport concessions. "To keep pushing it back, of course, only delays the opening of the [international] terminal."

Concessionaire William Swift, president of Business Traveler Services, which operates specialty retail outlets at airports, said it's "expensive and time-consuming" to redo proposals.

On Tuesday, city officials went into excruciating detail on the many forms that concessionaires must complete.

In the first concessions solicitation last spring, "it's clear that we didn't do a good job on the forms," said Hartsfield-Jackson's concessions director Paul Brown.

Some new concessionaire hopefuls came to the conference, raising the prospect that the second round of solicitations could attract even more competitors.

Most proposals for new restaurants and shops at the airport are now due in late October, and Brown said he hopes to make recommendations on contract awards in early December and to execute leases by January.