Nashville International Airport Moving from 'Good to Great'

DBE PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT

Nashville International Airport Moving from ‘Good to Great’

The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority Business Diversity Development Team members hosted the 2019 “Business Taking Off” supplier outreach and networking event in March 2019. (From left) Mark Epps, Donzaleigh Powell, Davita Taylor, Kebbyn Connell and Bryan Gleason.

Nashville International Airport (BNA) has a vision, and its internal Business Diversity Development team is a key part of the success of that overall vision as it relates to Diversity & Inclusion. Beyond the BNA Vision, a 5-year, $1.3 billion master plan for expansion, is also a desire for participating small businesses, women- and minority-owned companies to gain work, exposure, technical assistance, sustainability and growth – matriculating from the business development process bigger, stronger and better than when they arrived. “We want to make sure these businesses walk away better than before they got here,” said Davita Taylor, BNA chief procurement officer.

Donzaleigh Powell, director of the Business Diversity Development team, said, “In this region, we just seem to have more teeth than most of the other agencies that are doing the type of work that we do. If we say ‘good faith effort,’ they need to be ‘great good faith efforts.’ One of the things that sets us apart is that there’s a real commitment to diversity and inclusion. We don’t just say it because it’s a buzz word and everybody’s talking about D&I right now.”

Taylor said that the airport has greatly increased its diversity and inclusion efforts since 2007, a year before a disparity study was completed. At that time, the airport only spent $712,487 with MWBE firms. In 2008, a disparity study yielded numerous areas for improvement, along with updated goals for participation – and served as the impetus to grow and develop a new program. In the 10-year span since the study was completed, there has been more than $18 million in diversity spending growth. The total MWBE spend in 2018 was $19,176,450.

The scope and scale of the BNA Vision expansion began in 2013, and is ongoing; encompassing three parking garages, a new international arrivals building, additional security screening lanes, expanded ticketing and baggage areas, a hotel and office plaza, and redoing an entire terminal – the new Concourse D. The BNA Vision creates thousands of jobs and pumps millions of dollars into the Middle Tennessee economy. Although a lot of the airport’s outreach is local to Nashville, it’s also statewide, inviting participation from other areas including: Chattanooga, Knoxville and Memphis, Tennessee.

In March 2019, BNA hosted its Business Taking Off event, an annual program that presents and outlines upcoming projects for the year; including timelines and estimated contract values. The program brings together prime contractors, representatives from Human Resources and Business Diversity Development, procurement agents, certifying agencies and other community partners to share bid packages, RFPs, opportunities and resources that are available for businesses to utilize and pursue. There was also an awards program, recognizing small businesses, internal agency advocates, and large businesses committed to D&I. This year’s event was sold-out, with more than 370 participants overall.

Two of the major contractors that participated in Business Taking Off were Hensel Phelps and Messer Construction Company. Hensel Phelps is managing the $500 million Concourse D and Terminal Wings expansion project, which began construction in the summer of 2018. Messer is overseeing a $144 million terminal renovation project that includes the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority (MNAA) Terminal Garage and Airport Administration building, along with a 3,000-car parking garage.

To encourage more ‘great good faith’ efforts, the Business Diversity Development team also partnered with a local business incubator to boost mentoring and training programs with Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs). The incubator provides classes on business basics, contract law and marketing. There are also opportunities for DBEs to receive assessments on their business operations and get connected with potential contractor partners. “Wherever you are weak, we hire consultants to help you get stronger,” Powell said. “We take a real investment in our small businesses.” If needed, DBEs are provided office space to help launch and stabilize their professional operations. Additionally, the incubation center also tracks job creation by DBEs that participate in the program. As an example of one of the agency’s success stories, a DBE electrical company entered the program with a negative income of $7,000; received help with estimating and bidding, and then turned a $200,000 profit within 22 months of participating in the program.

A realignment of how to handle airport concessions and boost Airport Concession Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (ACDBE) inclusion is also underway. BNA is migrating away from its traditional master concessionaire program to using a third-party concessions developer, Fraport USA. By using a third-party vendor, the Nashville airport will now be able to build a concessions program with a heavy emphasis on local vendors that is more reflective of the city’s demographic population. The concessionaire program goals are 85% local businesses and 40% ACDBEs. Fraport USA has developed airport concessions programs for: BWI Airport; Cleveland Hopkins International Airport; Pittsburgh International Airport; and JFK Terminal 5. Fraport USA also has a global portfolio that includes various types of airport operations at 26 airports on three continents.

Taylor said: “You’ve got to really understand procurement to do your diversity and inclusion job well. Diversity & Inclusion is important, but we also want it to be authentic.” Taylor said that MNAA Chairman Dexter Samuels has helped spark growth and momentum in the area of Diversity & Inclusion as the airport’s first African American chairman. In addition to his leadership in the area, BDD is also requesting support for workforce development and job creation, to target six Promise Zone areas that have high unemployment levels in the community.

Taylor said that the great work being done by the Business Diversity Development unit is a team effort. She said it takes a strong, cohesive group to accomplish the lofty goals they have set. And the team of five, working together, is what makes it all possible in the effort to create a level playing field and to move the airport’s Diversity & Inclusion efforts from good to great.