Chase Is Spending $70 Million on One Room in Seattle

The Port of Seattle commission voted on September 22 to authorise a Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and the numbers attached to the vote are what make it notable. Chase has committed roughly $70 million to the build-out and a mid-term refurbishment under a fifteen-year lease, with the airport expecting about $7.9 million a year in rent. At 16,000 square feet the space would be among the largest in the entire Sapphire Lounge network, which currently runs to a handful of locations anchored by New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego and Hong Kong.

The site is in Concourse A near Gate A11, directly alongside the existing Delta lounge cluster. That location matters more than it sounds. Concourse A is the part of Sea-Tac most travellers pass through on domestic narrowbody departures, rather than the international S Gates satellite where premium facilities have tended to cluster. Putting a card-issuer lounge there is a bet that the people worth capturing are ordinary domestic flyers with a Sapphire Reserve in their wallet, not long-haul premium-cabin passengers who already have an airline club waiting for them somewhere else in the building.

What the vote does not come with is an opening date, and the reason is an unusually literal queue. Construction cannot begin until United finishes its own expanded club at Sea-Tac and vacates its current space. That frees a room for The Club to relocate into, which in turn empties the space Chase actually wants. Three tenants have to move in sequence before the first wall comes down. Airport projects slip for duller reasons than this all the time, so anyone reading the announcement as a near-term promise should probably read it again.

For Seattle travellers the practical takeaway is that the lounge shortage at Sea-Tac is being addressed, slowly, from several directions at once. United’s larger club, The Club’s relocation and now Chase’s arrival all add seats to a terminal where existing lounges routinely run at capacity during the morning bank. Alaska’s own lounges remain the busiest option for most people flying out of Seattle, and nothing announced this week changes that in the next couple of years. It does suggest the banks still believe airport real estate is worth paying airport prices for.

Sources: Business Traveller, Upgraded Points