DFW Airport opens next-generation $54M HQ

IRVING – DFW International Airport has opened a three-story, 154,000-sf building that is the airport’s new administrative offices.

The energy-efficient headquarters has opened at the airport’s Southgate Plaza development, and the airport board held its first monthly meeting at the facility in early April.

“We’ve been able to create a much more open environment, so you’ll see less offices,” Sean Donohue, the airport’s chief executive, said about the new headquarters. “I think it will generate better collaboration and better communication.”

The building features coffee bars on the second and third floors along with a large break room called “The Hangar,” which has lounge chairs, couches and tables for employees to use for impromptu meetings or lunches.

The airport board, which spent $54 million on the facility, decided three years ago that the 1970s-era headquarters building on Airfield Dr. was outdated.

Staff members have been spread out over ten buildings at the airport, but with the new headquarters, most of the airport’s administrative departments will be consolidated.

Earlier this year, the airport board approved a 60-year lease with a Dallas commercial real estate firm to manage the old headquarters and two other office buildings at the airport. That deal has helped offset the cost of the debt payments on the new headquarters, Donohue said.