Beaches restaurant at Portland International Airport is closing on March 31 for a five-year-long remodel project in the airport’s main terminal, but the popular restaurant might not return.
Owner Mark Matthias only said he “may go out there again,” after the remodeling is due to end in 2023. There could be an opportunity for a bid to bring back Beaches at PDX, he said.
“In a couple of years, the airport is going to be dramatically different,” Matthias said. “As they go through the remodel, they’re going to bring things back.”
The renovations will bring a sleek, modern look to the main terminal. Renderings show a wooden gap paneled ceiling with a round central skylight, meant to simulate sun shining through local evergreen trees.
The layout of the terminal will also change from a traditional wall of restaurants and shops into separately spaced businesses. The design is meant to emulate a small version of city blocks in downtown Portland.
Another feature of the new design is a prominent display of natural plants in the terminal.
“The inspiration we really looked to in the beginning was of the place, the natural environment, the really unique regions that we live in,” said Sharron van der Meulen, managing partner in the Portland office of ZGF, in a September press release. ZGF is the architecture firm hired for the renovation.
Beaches at the airport, located in the “Oregon Market” area of the main terminal, is currently open for takeout dining service only because of Oregon’s COVID-19 restrictions. It is likely to remain that way until its last day on March 31.
Kama Simonds, spokesperson for the Port of Portland, which oversees the airport, said that when the Oregon Market area closes for construction, the airport will still have pre-security food and beverage options for travelers and employees: Portland Coffee Roasters, The Elephants Deli and a new Travel Mart, set to open in April.
The whole project will be completed in 2025, but the main terminal’s pre-security Oregon Market should be done in 2023, Simonds wrote in an email to The Columbian.
The airport will have double the number of concession spaces when the new main terminal opens in 2023, she wrote. Some retail locations, including The Real Mother Goose, Nike and The Barbers, are not planning on returning to PDX at this time, she wrote.
Most of Beaches’ knickknacks and quirky items, such as hot rods that decorate the restaurant, will be temporarily stored at the WareHouse ’23 location, thanks to the Port of Vancouver, Matthias said. He’s unsure where they will end up.
Matthias also had to prematurely close WareHouse ’23, at the Port of Vancouver’s Terminal 1, because of the COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020, although he had planned on keeping it open for the remainder of 2020. The Port of Vancouver plans to renovate Terminal 1 into new buildings, and that includes demolishing the WareHouse ’23 building.
Beaches at PDX opened in 2010 as the second restaurant from Matthias, who opened the first Beaches at 1919 S.E. Columbia River Drive in the 1990s.
