The facility will be located on 6.5 acres leased from the Greater Orlando Airport Authority and will feature 292 guest rooms, a 4,000-sf assembly room, a 1,000-sf fitness center, two quiet study rooms, four meeting rooms, an e-library and a great room. Outdoor amenities will include a pool, sports court and outdoor kitchen facilities. It is expected to be completed in 14 to 18 months. The facility will be constructed and operated in a fashion similar to extended-stay hotel, Tishman project executive Jim Durkin tells GlobeSt.com.

The developer of the project is Houston-based Isis Investments, the design architect is Houston-based Mitchell, Carlson, Stone, Inc. and the owner's representative is New York-based Tishman Construction Corp. The lodge is being constructed by Tulsa, OK-based Manhattan Construction. It will be operated by Intercontinental Hotels Group.

The Crew Lodge will join other recently completed support facilities built as part of JetBlue University. They include a support campus that offers training for flight operations, flight attendant, technical operations and customer service crewmembers that was completed about a year ago. It also includes a LiveTV three-bay hangar, which opened in April 2005. LiveTV is the wholly owned subsidiary that provides inflight satellite television systems on aircrafts. "This is a fairly unique project for an airline," Durkin says.