Fresh spaces, familiar faces: Sunport overhaul caps milestone year for Fresquez Concessions

Not many people know the Albuquerque International Sunport as well as Lenny Fresquez, who puts in about 7,000 steps walking the airport every day.

“Sometimes I wonder how many miles I have on that brick over 30 years,” he said.

Lenny Fresquez is the founder of Fresquez Companies, a food-service organization that has operated more than 270 restaurants since 1976. Today, the companies operate 22 restaurants in New Mexico, Texas and Colorado — many of which are at the Sunport.

Under the Fresquez umbrella is Fresquez Concessions, one of the Sunport’s longest-standing food operators of 30 years. The partnership has yielded more than just walking steps. Last year alone, Fresquez Concessions served 297,077 local beers, made 233,236 tortillas and prepared 8,825 pounds of chopped green chile at the Sunport, a company fact sheet said.

Fresquez Concessions operates 80% of the airport’s dining offerings, which have significantly expanded in the last several years. The expansion is a result of the city of Albuquerque’s Dream of Flight initiative — a roughly $90 million effort to rejuvenate the Sunport with new dining, retail and infrastructure improvements.

The city issued a request for proposals, or RFP, for its food and beverage concessions program in 2023, seeking bids from airport operators to create and bring 15 new — and primarily local — food, coffee and beverage concepts into the terminal.

“We wanted to make sure that when a passenger lands in Albuquerque, they know they’re in Albuquerque or New Mexico,” said Gary Gilliard, deputy director of Albuquerque’s Aviation Department. “We wanted it to be authentic, so we did not want Shake Shack, McDonald’s and Burger Kings everywhere. We wanted something unique.”

‘We can do a better job’

Fresquez Concessions was one of several bidders who submitted a proposal for the Sunport’s dining revamp. “Master concessioners” and billion-dollar companies from across the globe also made bids, Lenny Fresquez said.

“That’s what we were up against,” he said. “So we had to show how we can do a better job.”

The operator did so with a proposal that boasted a unique lineup of New Mexico business concepts, including Cheese & Coffee, Burque Brews, Rush of Prana by Annapurna’s and Flavor of NM by Tia’s.

The city accepted Fresquez Concessions’ proposal, which Gilliard said “definitely hit the ball out of the park” with 10 of its 13 proposed restaurants concepts being local.

“We’re keeping the money here,” Lenny Fresquez said.

The company’s proposal also emphasized homemade, high-quality food.

“We really take pride in the freshness of each product,” said Fresquez Companies President LeeAnna Fresquez, the founder’s daughter, as she pointed out the homemade cherry Pop-Tarts, breakfast burritos, sandwiches and biscochitos that travelers can find at the Sunport’s Fresquez-operated businesses.

With everything from healthy elote snack packs to award-winning green chile vodka and pints of chile that come with TSA-approved, insulated travel bags, LeeAnna Fresquez said the company’s mix of Sunport offerings is “a wonderful representation of what our unique culture is.”

Even the national brands — Panda Express, Buffalo Wild Wings and Dunkin’ — were selected on similar values and the flexibility to allow for some local customization, LeeAnna Fresquez said. The Dunkin’ space, for example, features a colorful mural of the Sandia Mountains surrounded by doughnut-themed hot air balloons.

The most recent Fresquez-operated restaurants to make their Sunport debut are New Mexico Piñon Coffee, Steel Bender Brewyard and Sadie’s of New Mexico, the last of which opened roughly one month ago.

Fresquez’s ability to secure businesses like Sadie’s, paired with its existing partnerships and deep local knowledge, is a big part of the reason the city decided to task the operator with leading the project.

“(This) required not just shaking their hand and going to Sadie’s and saying, ‘Come on in,’” Gilliard said. “It required them to value engineer the street operation of a company like Sadie’s into how it’s going to work at the airport.”

LeeAnna Fresquez’s pitch to businesses like Sadie’s outlined the exposure an airport operation would bring to the restaurant. But the alignment of both businesses’ desire to invest in the local community sealed the deal, she said.

From Arby’s to accolades

Securing deals isn’t new to Lenny Fresquez, who became the first Hispanic Arby’s franchisee at 23 years old. He and his wife, Linda, opened 15 Arby’s restaurants in nine years before selling them in the early ‘90s. Mac’s Steak in the Rough and Village Inn are among the restaurants currently in the company’s brick-and-mortar portfolio.

The family got into the concession business through its involvement with the New Mexico State Fair, selling food and beverages at the annual event for 15 years. Airport concessions are now a staple for the operator, which also has eateries at the El Paso International Airport and Denver International Airport.

About half of Fresquez’s business takes place at the Sunport. Fresquez Concessions’ portion of the Dream of Flight renovation project is expected to wrap up this fall with the opening of two more businesses, Taos Peaks and Buffalo Wild Wings Go. Fresquez’s investment in the project will surpass $16 million by that time, Lenny Fresquez said.

The number of restaurants the company delivered in under two years is “unprecedented,” LeeAnna Fresquez said. Even during heavy construction, Fresquez Companies managed to grow its revenue per passenger by 9% from 2024 to 2025, a company fact sheet said.

As the Sunport transformation takes shape, LeeAnna Fresquez said she can already sense employee morale climbing. Gilliard said the Sunport's concessions program is now employing twice as many people as it was before the renovation project.

Fresquez Companies’ role in the Sunport improvement has been recognized by Airport Experience News, or AXN — an airport industry professionals organization.

This year, Fresquez Concessions and two of its business operations — Teller Bar at the Sunport and Flavor of NM at El Paso International Airport — have been nominated in three categories: Best Local Concessions Management Team, Best Bar Experience and Best Quick-Service Restaurant Concept. AXN will announce the winners on Wednesday.

“We’re very proud,” Gilliard said. “And we’re not done yet.”

Dream of Flight’s last round of projects include a Frank’s Famous Chicken & Waffles and Laguna Burger slated to open this spring. North Carolina-based operator Tailwind Concessions is responsible for those restaurants. A brand new observation deck will also be completed in summer 2027. When all is complete, “there’s not an airport that’s going to be as nice,” Lenny Fresquez said.

Last year, the Sunport was ranked the No. 7 best airport in the U.S. by the Washington Post, which wrote that “few airports embody their location more than the Sunport.” It scored among airports in Portland, Oregon; Long Beach, California; and Washington, D.C., based on survey results from thousands of readers, hundreds of thousands of Yelp reviews and other data.

Champion of the first impression

Sunport leadership and the Fresquez family hope the upgrades will not only improve the Sunport’s traveler experience — and possibly move the Sunport’s future ranking closer to No. 1, Gilliard said — but also communicate a story about New Mexico that makes people want to return and further support the local economy.

“It’s an important vehicle for the city of Albuquerque,” Gilliard said. “The airport is the champion for that first impression, and also the feel for what people want to enjoy when they come here.”

Improved tourism numbers and more direct flights are among Gilliard’s hopes and expectations for the project’s impact. He also hopes the refresh inspires entrepreneurs throughout the city to invest in their businesses and prepare for the increased traffic the Dream of Flight project could bring — a trend he said has occurred in cities like Denver and Nashville.

“We are running this airport on today and tomorrow, so that as the economic improvement comes, we are ready and able to deliver,” Gilliard said. “We want people to know Albuquerque. We want people to know New Mexico like they've never known it before.”

The state’s diversity and hospitality are what Lenny Fresquez and LeeAnna Fresquez hope people take away from their experiences at the Sunport and with Fresquez Concessions.

“New Mexico has been very good to us,” Lenny Fresquez said. “We’re able to give back and that means a lot to our family.”

Kylie Garcia covers retail and real estate for the Journal. You can reach her at kgarcia@abqjournal.com.