A rendering of the expanded and improved JFK International Airport in Queens, NY.

NEW YORK CITY—The Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey authorized a 31-year lease with JFK Air Cargo LLC on Thursday to build a 250,000-square-foot air cargo facility at JFK International Airport in Queens.

The new project marks the second phase of the state's planned air cargo modernization program at JFK. Phase one of the cargo modernization effort was authorized by the Port Authority board in 2017 with a long-term lease with Aero JFK II LLC for a 346,000-square-foot handling facility. The Aero JFK facility and the reconstruction of Taxiways CA and CB authorized by the November 2017 vote are already in progress. The first phase of the air cargo modernization program was valued at $132-million in combined investment in the facility and taxiway upgrades at JFK.

The new air cargo facility announced yesterday will involve an initial investment of $70 million by JFK Air Cargo LLC and will bring $152 million in rentals during the term of the agreement.

“New York's nation-leading infrastructure investments are fundamentally transforming our economy, and the new JFK Airport will continue this unprecedented growth,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in announcing the new air cargo project. “This new facility will generate significant economic output for the region, support thousands of good paying jobs and cement JFK Airport's place as a national leader in air cargo operations.”

JFK Airport handled about 1.4 million tons of cargo in 2018, making it one of the top seven airports in the United States in terms of cargo volume. Across the region, the overall cargo business at the airport currently supports a total of nearly 78,000 jobs, $13.1 billion in sales and an estimated $6 billion in wages, according to Port Authority figures. The new facility is expected to yield an estimated 200,000 tons of additional cargo, 5,400 regional jobs, more than $1.8 billion in sales and an estimated $660 million in wages.

Port Authority Chairman Kevin O'Toole said of the new project, “The Port Authority strives to provide world-class facilities for our customers. On-airport cargo facilities provide a competitive advantage over off-airport locations, and this new cargo facility is vital to the redevelopment of JFK.”

The $13-billion JFK improvement plan outlined by Gov. Cuomo last year calls for two new terminals that will help create an interconnected, unified facility adding a total of four million square feet to the airport's North and South sides. The modernized JFK Airport will feature premier passenger amenities, superior security technology and improved customer service. Private funding is being used for $12 billion of the cost for the initiative.

In February of this year, Gov. Cuomo announced that American Airlines and British Airways would invest an additional $344 million to expand Terminal 8 as part of the airport's transformation. Next month, the widely anticipated TWA Hotel, restoring the grandeur of Eero Saarinen's landmark 1962 TWA Flight Center, will open its doors just outside of JetBlue's Terminal 5.

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Port Authority Approves Development of 250,000 SF Cargo Facility at JFK Airport

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