Progress for LaGuardia overhaul? Main terminal developer picked
Finally, there appears to be some tangible progress in the long-running effort to give New York's LaGuardia Airport a much-needed makeover.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey – the agency that operates LaGuardia as well as New York's other big airports – announced on Thursday that it has selected a development team to build a new main terminal at LaGuardia.
The agency's board of commissioners voted for the LaGuardia Gateway Partners group. That team is now tasked with the replacing LaGuardia's 1964-era Terminal B.
The Associated Press says "the project includes developer Skanska USA, architecture and engineering company HOK and financial firms Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. The work is expected to be completed by 2021 at a cost of $3.6 billion, according to the Port Authority's capital plan."
Calls to upgrade LaGuardia are now decades old. Fliers generally like the airport for its close-to-Manhattan location, but gripe about its aging, cramped and dingy facilities.
Perhaps most famously, there were the comments Vice President Joe Biden made in 2014, when he said LaGuardia's condition made it look like it "must be in some third world country." Now, Port Authority officials believe they're ready to open a new chapter at LaGuardia.
"For too long, LaGuardia has been the stepchild of our region's airports compared to JFK (John F. Kennedy International Airport) and Newark International," Port Authority Vice Chairman Scott Rechler is quoted as saying by AP. "Today we took the first step in moving forward with a comprehensive master plan to redevelop LaGuardia into a 21st century, world-class airport that the state of New York deserves."
The Wall Street Journal writes "the cost of the project, initially estimated at $3.6 billion, could rise by up to $400 million to construct a new 'central entry portal' for La Guardia's Central Terminal Building, known to travelers as Terminal B, officials said on Thursday."
The central portal was recommended by an outside panel, which dubbed such an entryway as a "Great Hall" that would service as LaGuardia's primary entry, according to Bloomberg News. The entryway, if it's ultimately approved, would link LaGuardia's B and C Terminals.
The panel also called for "a hotel with 100 to 200 rooms and an automated people-mover. It also recommended an AirTrain connection to the subway, improved roads and adequate parking," Bloomberg writes.
The full details of the plan are expected to be released in the next few weeks.
"My directive was not to rebuild what was but imagine and build what should be," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement addressing the recommendations from the outside panel, which made its recommendations at Cuomo's request. "This airport is the welcoming point to the greatest state in the country and New York deserves the best."
Crain's New York Business explains the project's finances, writing: "The Central Terminal building is being developed as a so-called public-private partnership in which LaGuardia Gateway Partners will manage and pay for the construction of the facility and recoup its investment mainly from rent and other fees collected from airlines and retailers at the terminal."
Despite the selection of redevelopment team, it may take until 2016 before construction begins. That's because, according to The New York Times, "(Port) Authority officials will begin negotiating a 35-year lease on the terminal. Those negotiations will take three to six months, followed by more than five and a half years of construction, Port Authority officials said."
Stay tuned …