JFK to open new international terminal
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Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans Monday to create a new, $9.5 billion international terminal at JFK Airport.
Rendering via Hochul/Twitter
By Rachel Vick
Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans to revamp John F. Kennedy Airport with a new international terminal Monday, using a public-private partnership to fund the $9.5 billion project.
The construction of Terminal One will include two concourses, an expanded arrival and departure space and modern design elements focused on creating a welcoming space for travelers.
“The entire terminal is inviting passengers in a way that a transformation of JFK should be,” Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said on Monday. “I'm delighted we have reached an exciting new terminal agreement.”
The 2.4 million square foot project will be built on the space currently occupied by three terminals, and create 23 international gates. The nearly $10 billion needed for construction will come from private investors, leveraging PANYNJ funding five times over.
Construction is slated to begin mid-2022, with the opening of the first 14 of 23 gates projected for 2026. The project is expected to be fully completed in 2028.
The new terminal was conceived and planned for prior to the pandemic, which put the project on hold.
There will also be a particular focus on equity, according to the New Terminal One Development Project Executive Chair Gerrard Bushell, who commended the work of local legislators to ensure community involvement and Minority and Women owned Business Enterprise prioritization.
“By delivering a state of the art terminal you are taking a bold step forward and revitalizing the front door to this nation,” Bushell said. “We are especially excited for the opportunity we will create for the residents and businesses of Queens and Southeast Queens in particular.”
Officials added that they’d continue their commitment to hiring locally and offering workforce training to members of the surrounding community in Queens, in line with ongoing airport projects in the borough.
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, who represents the district where the airport is located, emphasized the often overlooked value of supporting minority communities through the creation of equity through ownership — which he says the new JFK project will do.
“If you want to get forward you want to have something you've invested in and have equity in [but] what our community has not had a lot is equity,” Meeks said. “We need people to have equity interest in the property — 30 percent [MWBE] is important but what has never been considered before in this country is 30 percent equity in the deal.”
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards also celebrated the project’s potential to support the borough’s revitalization, and that of the communities hit hardest by the impacts of the pandemic.
He said that in the past, he’s felt a “lack of real will to put community first.”
“There's been a lot of talk coming out of this pandemic about building back — you think about Southeast Queens [and] why these communities were most impacted; it's called inequity,” Richards said. “It's really about investments in human capital that are so important — the people surrounding the airport, the people more impacted.”
There will be more than $2 billion in MWBE opportunities for the project, according to PANYNJ. To date, New Terminal One has contracted with 71 MWBE firms and paid them over $46 million for key engineering, planning, and design work.
“This is going to help us address many of the things that exacerbated the pandemic in the first place,” the borough president added. “People in Southeast Queens aren't looking for a handout, they're looking for a hand up. You shouldn't have to leave your borough to find a great job.”
