Airport gift shop felled by lease dispute

A disagreement over terms of a new lease for the Kindred Spirits Gift Gallery at Glacier Park International Airport has prompted the gift-shop owner to bow out of a relationship that has spanned 17 years at the airport.

Kindred Spirits owner Ann Goldthwait told the Airport Authority Board last week she cannot sign a lease she believes is unfair and wasn’t negotiated in good faith. Her decision sets the stage for a new tenant in the airport’s premier retail space by the end of November.

The board will issue a request for proposals for a new lessor, and Goldthwait has 60 days to vacate the gift-shop area on the ground level and a smaller shop upstairs in the secured area.

“I’ve been through three [airport] directors, a remodel, 9/11 and I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life,” a tearful Goldthwait said after last Tuesday’s board meeting, wondering how she was going to break the news to 190 artists and other vendors who supply items for the gift shop, and to her loyal staff of nine employees.

Goldthwait’s main objection to the new lease is a clause that gives her a non-exclusive right to operate the shop within the leased premises. In other words, the airport could at any time reconfigure the store space and use it for other airport functions or services. Without any guarantee of size, location or time frame for relocation, Goldthwait said she is unable to sign the lease. Her attorney also had advised her not to sign the lease.

“The new lease virtually takes away most every right to function as a profitable, private enterprise” she said.

She asked the board if it was willing to forego the non-exclusive requirement and “leave it as is, instead of pre-dealing” with a future reconfiguration that may or may not happen. Goldthwait got her answer when the board unanimously voted to accept the new lease without further changes.

Initially, Goldthwait also was concerned about another lease requirement that would increase the airport’s take of gross receipts from the current 7 percent to a phased-in level of 10 percent within five years. She later agreed to the phased increase.

“I understood they needed to change that,” she said. “My goal was not to be rich but to provide a venue for all of this incredible talent.”

Several employees of Kindred Spirits attended the board meeting in support of Goldthwait. Ron Clem, whose wife, Caryl, manages Kindred Spirits, told board members they need to support small businesses such as the gift shop.

“The Airport Authority is [a level of] government. You’re supposed to represent the Flathead Valley,” Clem said. “Would you want this kind of government intrusion into your business? This is bureaucratic intrusion in private enterprise.”

Longtime Airport Board member Jim Trout, who serves on the board’s lease committee, said he believes the lease committee did its best to negotiate a workable lease.

“The committee feels the lease we’ve given you is fair and allows us to operate the airport,” Trout told Goldthwait.

 During comments before the board’s official business got under way, Trout addressed a rumor that the gift shop was being pressured to leave so a casino could operate in the space.

“To say we’re going to force the gift shop out and put a casino in is nuts,” Trout said. “Preposterous is the kindest word I can use.”

Trout said there has been some discussion about a couple of gaming machines for the Gate 3 area, but no decision has been made.

Goldthwait told the board she did not start the rumor.

Airport Board Member Curt McIntyre said he, too, sees the new lease as a “pretty good document overall.”

“This lease is a privilege, not a right,” McIntyre said. “The shop you have is premier real estate and a great opportunity ... we needed to bring the lease into the 21st century.”

Board Chairman Dennis Beams said he hoped the two parties could agree on the lease and move forward, but he reiterated the board’s need for a non-exclusive clause.

“We don’t have plans to add a second vendor, but as a board we need to have that flexibility ... if TSA says we have to move inside security [to the gift-shop area] then we’d have to do it. It’s not our intent to be inflexible, but we could get an FAA mandate tomorrow.”

The new lease explained that the main terminal building may undergo remodeling during the term of the lease and that Goldthwait could be asked to relocate the gift shop or consolidate the two shops into one.

Glacier Park International already has started engineering a plan to accommodate the “black box” full-body scanners that will arrive at some point.

Security will continue to be “this ever-changing giant unknown,” Airport Director Cindi Martin said in an earlier Inter Lake interview, and figuring out how to meet federal Transportation Security Administration directives is a challenge.

The federal agency now is considering creating separate security lines for frequent, regular and high-risk travelers. That’s an unfunded mandate that would take up room in an already expanded security check-in area, she said.

“It’s a one-size-fits-all” airport directive, Martin said. “But one size won’t fit all. Our concern is being able to meet” the mandate and still be able to accomplish other capital improvement plans.

Airports are required by the Federal Aviation Administration to outline six-year capital improvement programs and prioritize how federal money would be spent for capital projects. A master plan the Airport Board has been working on for the past three years divides upgrades into short-, mid- and long-term projects, and interior upgrades are among the planned improvements.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.