By Rich Bockmann
Despite being home to a multibillion-dollar air-cargo industry, Kennedy Airport has been sorely lacking an amenity that is commonplace at millions of miles of highway across the country.
But with the opening of a 21st century truck stop on airport grounds, JFK can now lay claim to the city’s only travel plaza — one where freight-hauling big rigs can fuel up alongside lithium-ion powered Teslas.
“This is the first travel plaza in New York City,” Airport Plazas President George AbiZeid said at the ribbon cutting ceremony for his company’s $5 million roadside comfort station in southeast Queens. “This is the first such project at an airport anywhere in the country.”
Designed to be what AbiZeid joyfully called “the main street for JFK,” the plaza boasts a 7-11 convenience store, a drive-through car wash, drop-off dry cleaning service and a food court where hungry airport workers can chow down on food from Wendy’s, Qdoba Mexican Grill or Max’s Pizza.
But what sets the site apart from the countless stations alongside vast stretches of roadway is what is under the canopy, where motorists can fill up with four different types of alternative fuel: compressed natural gas, E85 ethanol gasoline, biodiesel and Tesla Superchargers that can charge the trendy electric cars with up to 120 kilowatts of power in just 20 minutes.
The station sits on 5.5 acres in the northeast section of the airport just off the JFK Expressway that were formerly home to the Green Lines Bus terminal. After trying unsuccessfully to redevelop the site in the 1980s, the Port Authority again requested proposals in 2007.
This time AbiZeid, working with the Sunoco oil company, came forward with plans to build what would be the first public truck parking facility in the five boroughs.
Thomas Bosco, the Port Authority’s head of aviation, said the station partially fulfills Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s pledge to invest in the airport and grow its $6.5 billion air cargo industry.
“Now today’s opening of this innovative and much-needed plaza, coupled with the upcoming construction on a state-of-the-art animal handling and cargo facility in the north cargo area here at JFK, are really two significant first steps towards meeting the governor’s challenge,” he said at the April 3 ribbon-cutting.
Airport Plazas has stations at Chicago O’Hare International airport as well as outlets in West Palm Beach, Fla.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Portland, Ore. The company is looking to expand by opening another eight sites across the country by year’s end.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
