$1.2B Redo Unveiled for JFK Terminal

NEW YORK CITY-Plans for a new $1.2-billion Delta Air Lines hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport were unveiled by government and airline officials on Wednesday. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had approved plans for the redevelopment and expansion of the airport’s Terminal 4 at its monthly meeting last week.

Currently, Delta operates mainly out of JFK’s Terminal 2 for domestic flights and Terminal 3 for international traffic. The 50-year-old Terminal 3 is scheduled to be demolished to make way for aircraft parking.

“Terminal 4 will greatly improve traveling for New Yorkers—and travelers across the globe—and showcase New York as the transportation hub of not only the nation, but the world,” Sen. Charles Schumer says in a statement. Work on the project is scheduled to begin next month and is expected to be completed in the spring of 2015.

The project is expected to generate 10,000 construction jobs, $500 million of personal income in the region and $1.6 billion of economic output from the purchases of goods and services, according to the Bloomberg administration. When completed, Delta’s New York hub is projected to contribute $19 billion to New York State’s economy each year. Terminal 4, which serves nearly 40 domestic and overseas carriers, opened in 2001 and is operated by JFKIAT LLC, a subsidiary of Schiphol USA.

The announcement coincided with a report from NYC & Co., the city’s marketing and tourism arm, that average hotel occupancy rate in the city was up 6.8% year over year for the first six months of 2010. The first half of this year also saw a 9.4% increase in the number of Amtrak non-commuter passengers arriving at Penn Station, and while the region’s three major airports saw a 1.2% year-over-year increase of inbound air passenger traffic overall, while international arrivals rose 4.8$% during the same period. 

In other redevelopment news, the city’s Economic Development Corp. and Department of Transportation on Tuesday unveiled the master plan for a makeover of Fordham Plaza, a transit hub in the Bronx and the center of a key retail corridor. Along with providing amenities for shoppers and other pedestrians, the plan calls for improvements in traffic circulation and transit access. The EDC says the plan has the potential to increase annual retail sales along the Fordham Road corridor from $439 million to an estimated $1.1 billion.