"Lawsuit Against Airport Vendor in Albuquerque, N.M., Is Settled Out of Court"

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Lawsuit Against Airport Vendor in Albuquerque, N.M., Is Settled Out of
Court
The Albuquerque (NM) Journal


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--A lawsuit filed in March by an airport vendor against
the city, a competitor, former Mayor Jim Baca and the city's contract
supervisor has been settled out of court, city officials confirmed
Monday.

Albuquerque businessman George Cook filed the civil suit claiming that
the city wrongly awarded one of four Albuquerque International Sunport
contracts to a competitor, Avila Retail Development and Management, even
though he had submitted a higher-scoring bid.

Avila Retail, owned by John and Kathleen Avila, has two shops at the
airport -- Puerto de Avila and Sagebrush -- that compete with Cook's
store, Shop Southwest Gift & News.

Cook, who was awarded the airport's "Package A" bid, claimed he should
also have been awarded the"Package C" bid that went to the Avilas. In
his suit, he claimed that the erroneous award would cost the city more
than $1 million in lost revenues over the seven-year contract.

The parties agreed to mediate the lawsuit, and a settlement was reached
on Thursday, said Dewey Cave, Sunport director of aviation.

"Through the mediation, both parties agreed, as well as the city, to a
situation where (Cook's company) El Mercado Del Sol, wound up with
Package A, and the Avilas took Package C with some minor
modifications,"Cave said Monday.

Those modifications give the Avilas an additional 450 square feet of
retail space that is past the airport's security checkpoint. It also
added some kiosk space to the Avilas' package, Cave said.

The increased security measures that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks have shifted more business to shops beyond the security
checkpoint, airport retailers have said.

Essentially, Cave said, Cook and the Avilas agreed to swap the bid
packages that had been awarded, Cave said.

"Everybody signed off to the agreement," Cave said. "We've had a short
discussion about what happens next, and we're going to be meeting with
all of the parties to talk about transitioning and things like that."

John Avila said he's pleased with the settlement.

"What we were interested in was more space beyond security," Avila said.
"We felt that as long as we increased our space beyond security, that we
are good enough merchandisers to make money," he said.

"What we're excited about is we got a little more space on the air side,
which we think is good for us. We think that's where the traffic and the
business has shifted to.

"I really think that everybody won," Avila said. "The city won because
they increased their revenues and minimum annual guarantees. We won
because we increased the space that we have air-side. And George (Cook)
won because he got the package he wanted.

Phone calls seeking comment from Cook were not returned Monday.


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