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JFK redevelopment bids still up in air

JFK redevelopment bids still up in air
Photo by Jeff Yapalater

Since July of 2017 when Port Authority first sought bids for JFK redevelopment, airlines, private equity, developers and terminal operators had met and given the Port Authority plans and bids for JFK Airport rehab. Since then, all parties have been expecting word from the Port Authority on awards for developing the terminals at JFK Airport. Now six months later, they are biting their nails.

Port has not released any public update information on the awards so everyone involved is anxiously awaiting a decision so that work can begin on JFK Airport Vision by Governor Cuomo announced In January 2017.

As of this time the only real redevelopment is being done at the iconic TWA International Arrivals that closed decades ago. A brand new on-airport Hotel wiis being built and will open sometime in the late first quarter of 2019.

JetBlue has its own plans to redevelop their own terminal. The project is expected to cost between $2 and $3 billion and will add wider gates — as many as 12 — to JetBlue’s terminal, which can currently only accommodate narrow, older model planes. JetBlue awaits approval from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is in the process of a $10 billion renovation Vision of the airport.

Although no awards have been made public, Port is not sitting still on the project. It is conducting community redevelopment meetings informing Queens residents of the nature and scope of the project, contractor and minority opportunities on work estimated to begin in early 2019 after prime investor awards are made.

JetBlue Airways Corp. tapped RXR Realty and Vantage Airport Group to expand its terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Terminal One Group, a consortium of four airlines, has teamed up with private equity firm Carlyle Group LP to extend Terminal 1. Their plan is to expand eastward through Terminal 2, a hub for Delta Air Lines Inc.’s domestic flights, and across the former site of Terminal 3, which is used as a parking lot for Delta aircraft.

That puts them in competition with Terminal 4, a Delta hub which has plans to expand west across a similar footprint. The terminal is operated by JFKIAT, which is owned by a joint venture led by Netherlands-based Royal Schiphol Group, with Delta as a minority stakeholder.

Glenn Youngkin, a co-chief executive of Carlyle Group, said whatever the outcome, airport-wide development will only work if all parties cooperate. “In order to make anything like this work in a complicated ecosphere like JFK, everybody is going to have to partner on this,” he said.