Two Tempe-based companies have been chosen to take up retail space in Sky Harbor International Airport’s Terminal 4.
Pedal Haus Brewery and Changing Hands Bookstore were picked for spots in the $310 million project to add an eight-gate concourse to the Southwest Airlines-operated terminal.
In addition to new retail and dining options, the development will include a new connector bridge to the north Terminal 4 concourses, and general improvements to the Terminal 4 processor and Security Checkpoint D.
The Phoenix City Council approved the retail and restaurants on March 2 through The Grove Inc., Emerging Domestic Market Ventures LLC and The Marshall Retail Group LLC. Other Valley-based companies going in include Sip Coffee & Beer, Melrose Pharmacy. Chick Fil A, eegee’s, L’Occitane and other national chains will make an appearance as well.
Changing Hands did not respond to a request for comment.
Having an airport location, particularly one as busy and heavily-trafficked as Sky Harbor, is a dream come true for Pedal Haus Founder and CEO Julian Wright.
“We’re honored that we’ve risen to the level of notoriety, operations, brand recognition and team that we would need to be considered for that,” he said. “That’s kind of like the big leagues getting in the airport, just based on volume and competition. Obviously, there’s quite a few other breweries in there, but still a small, small, small portion of the actual number of breweries in Arizona. We’re completely stoked and I can’t wait to have a Pedal Haus beer in the airport for the first time.”
Wright noted the airport location will be a licensed concept, so it will operate a little different from the brewery’s brick-and-mortar restaurants in Tempe, Phoenix and Chandler.
The new concourse is expected to be completed sometime in 2022, perhaps late summer or early fall. Pedal Haus will be the main bar in the center of a food hall, surrounded by other local food concepts with shared seating. The bar will have 35 seats and a pared-down menu, including pizza fresh from an exposed brick oven and some breakfast items, according to Wright.
“They had their architects lay out the whole food hall, so all the concepts that are going in there, including Pedal Haus, and we came in after them and sort of laid out all the equipment,” he said of The Grove, which licensed the Pedal Haus brand. “I would imagine there’ll be another version or two before it’s all said and done, but a lot of that kind of heavy lifting has been done as far as the layout and design goes. We just have to help get that across the finish line, which won’t be too hard.”
He said the partnership between his team and The Grove’s is a “match made in heaven.”
But it will be the fourth location for the Tempe-based company — if it’s finished before the upcoming Mesa spot, that is. Wright is in the midst of moving Pedal Haus’ distillery from Tempe to Chandler, a stone’s throw from San Tan Brewery, as they were running out of space at the original facility. His goal is to eventually open a tap room and conduct tours of the new space.
But however big Pedal Haus becomes, Wright, an ASU alum and longtime Tempe resident, affirmed that Tempe will always be home.
Lindsay is a Phoenix native and is thrilled to be reporting in her hometown.
After spending several years in advertising after college, she switched gears and graduated with her master’s degree in journalism at Arizona State University in 2019.
When she’s not writing, you can usually find her reading a book or playing with her family’s dogs.
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