Do you want to do business with the Port of Seattle? Are you a local, small, minority or woman-owned business?
Join the upcoming PortGen workshop where you will learn about risk management, airport badging requirements, the procurement and technical assistance center and get an overview of all categories of contracting:
March 5, 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Sea-Tac International Airport Central Auditorium,
Main Terminal Building
17801 International Boulevard (Pacific Highway S.)
Seattle, WA 98158
Validated parking available in the Sea-Tac Airport parking garage.
Space is limited, please RSVP as soon as possible by clicking the blue RSVP envelope – http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07ef3slb7k96841429&llr=ikqvur9ab.
Diversity in contracting: a new policy at the Port of Seattle
In an effort to address equity in Port contracting, the Port of Seattle Commission passed the “Diversity in Contracting” policy to support the Port’s goal to increase the utilization of Women, Minority, Disadvantaged and under-represented firms. The new program will be phased in over the course of 2018.
Our goal is to triple the number of women and minority business enterprise (WMBE) firms doing business with the Port of Seattle, and increase to 15 percent the percentage of dollars spent on WMBE contracts over five years.
To learn about contracting opportunities, and to register to be listed on the Port’s Procurement Roster (PRMS: this is the database where businesses express their interest in doing business with the Port) go to our Contracting Opportunities page – http://www.portseattle.org/Business/Contracting-Opportunities/Pages/default.aspx.
Contracting with the Port: video how tos
In a question and answer format geared toward helping small and disadvantaged businesses, the conversational videos below between Port managers in-the-know cover four types of contracts at the Port:
Consulting Services
Goods and Services
Major Construction
Small Works Construction
You will learn how to find out about contracts, what types of contracts are available, tips and tricks you need to place a proposal and what to do when you win a contract.
Airport provides a unique venue to grow a business
When talking to business woman Randi Sibonga, you soon realize she is a proud advocate of small business development, and rightly so—she lives it.
In the mid-1980s, she and her business partners opened the first certified women-owned business at Sea-Tac Airport: an ice cream and candy shop and a small gift/news outlet.
By building relationships, seizing opportunities, staying committed and working hard over the decades that followed, she flourished. Today, she partners with others to operate more than two dozen businesses at Sea-Tac. She shared her inspirational story as a panelist at one of the recent Sea-Tac Airport Concessions Opportunities Summit, designed to inform small business owners about business opportunities with the Port and available assistance.
For her first several years, she and her female partners worked with HMSHost to build up their presence at Sea-Tac. They handled various remodeling and expansion efforts and financial and operational hurdles, and then were faced with their biggest challenge when 9/11 changed passenger flow and purchasing habits at airports. To address this, Sibonga worked with Port staff and HMSHost to form the first joint venture at Sea-Tac under the federal Airport Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) Program.
For the past dozen years, her company, MCSB, Inc., and another ACDBE company and joint venture partner, Ardie Warren of Warren’s Northwest News & Gift, have worked with prime operator Hudson Group. Together they operate 24 news, gift and specialty stores, including the new Mac Cosmetics and Coach stores at Sea-Tac. And if that wasn’t enough, Sibonga partners with Dufry North America to operate three of Sea-Tac’s duty free stores, making her one of only a few minority women in the nation who own airport duty-free outlets.
Looking back over this progression, Sibonga said: “It is incredible to think how far we have come—but it took over 30 years. Advocacy is what counts, and willingness by the Port and the prime contractors to take a risk was crucial,” she added.
She credits the ACDBE Program, HMSHost, Hudson and the Port for their willingness to accommodate small business, and the commitment at all levels to encourage small business success at the airport.
“Relationships underlie everything,” she said. “Operating at an airport is unique in retail, has certain limitations and there are no guarantees,” she said.
“Entrepreneurs interested in doing business at Sea-Tac need to do their homework and come in with their eyes wide open. It takes a lot of time and financing to build a business, but being at an airport is one of the most unique, exciting and energetic business environments I can imagine, and there is huge volume potential.” She said she and her partners built their business successes on being “the traveler’s best friend” when a customer comes into one of their Sea-Tac stores.
Still looking ahead, Sibonga said she is eager to see what is next for Sea-Tac with projects such as the North Satellite modernization and the new expanded International Arrivals Facility, plus the ongoing redevelopment of the Airport Dining and Retail program.
Questions?
Small Business Program Contact Information:
(206) 787-3455
or email – cpo-inbox@portseattle.org.
– Port of Seattle
