JFK redevelopment reaches milestone
/
The final steel beam was placed on the frame of the $4.2 billion new Terminal 6 at JFK Airport on Tuesday. Photo by Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
By Ryan Schwach
Construction was topped off at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s $4.2 billion new Terminal 6 on Tuesday.
The topping off of the terminal’s steel frame marks another milestone at the Queens airport, which is in the middle of an $18 billion redevelopment effort.
“We're getting closer to completion of one of the largest transformations in our history,” Governor Kathy Hochul said from JFK on Tuesday. “We're here together to put that final piece of steel beam to top it off and to finally fulfill this long held dream.”
The privately-funded new Terminal 6, which is scheduled to open to travelers in 2026, will be a 1.2 million square foot terminal with 10 new aircraft gates, as well as various amenities including local dining options that will be 30 percent minority-women owned.
The terminal is expected to bring 4,000 jobs, and is being constructed by around 1,800 union workers.
Officials on Tuesday highlighted community-centered efforts at the terminal, both in local hiring and hiring local good vendors.
Governor Kathy Hochul and local elected officials celebrated the topping off at the new Terminal 6 at JFK Airport on Tuesday. Susan Watts/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
“We're going to continue hiring in the communities – Southeast Queens is going to keep sending workers and contracts…and we'll never overlook our neighbors,” Hochul said. “That happens at too many airports around America. You forget the people live right outside the doorstep who have to put up with the disruption and the noise and the commotion.”
Borough President Donovan Richards, one of the co-chairs of the JFK Community Advisory Council, supported Hochul’s sentiment with his trademark: “Queens get the money.”
“We're putting thousands of our residents to work, and at the end of the day, those who deal with the plane noise, traffic and construction should be first in line to access the promise and the potential this project brings,” he said.
Richards called the topping off a historic moment, and a “legacy project” he has been involved with since first getting elected into office.
“This project will outlive each and every one of us,” he said.
The borough president specifically praised a $2.3 billion investment in minority- and women-owned business contracts to provide food and other amenities at the terminal, something Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said is a first for New York State.
“We are committed to providing business opportunities,” he said. “We're creating opportunities for local and diverse businesses to join the airport's roster of retail and dining options…and we will add more in the near future. Throughout our effort, we're connecting residents for nearby communities with jobs, and we've also worked hard to reduce the impact of construction activities on the community we built.”
Congressmember Gregory Meeks, the other co-chair of the advisory council, recalled a time when leaders from outside the city and the country tried to avoid the perils of flying into JFK, something he says will no longer be the case.
“Dreams are turning into reality,” he said. “It's about sharing in this prosperity. It's about making this country a better place, and it's about showing an example right here where we live.”
The new Terminal 6 is a public-private partnership between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and JFK Millennium Partners, a consortium of private companies investing into the project's development.
The new terminal is being developed in two phases, with the first new gates opening in 2026 and construction being totally completed by 2028.
The new Terminal 6 will have 10 new aircraft gates and is expected to open in 2026. Rendering via A New JFK
The redevelopment at JFK has a few other ongoing projects as well.
Among them – work on a new Terminal 1, which is even bigger than the new Terminal 6 as far as square footage. The terminal is scheduled to open to the public in 2026, as well. Terminal 1 was topped off in March.
