From the artist rendering and construction photos it only looks as if they are adding entrances to the other side of the building since there will be other retail on all sides of the build eventually.
Pyro Universe is full of people that THINK they know what's going on in the world of Disney fireworks. Disneyland uses air launch for some of their stuff. Not all. HKDL doesn't use air launch. They are conventional lift.
They may have been. But past events on the beach there were some set upon that dock area that were too large to launch from a barge safely. I was basing this off past set ups.