Cuomo announces major overhaul for LaGuardia Airport
- A rendering of LaGuardia Airport after a planned overhaul. Photo courtesy Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office
Built in 1937, LaGuardia Airport, once referred to as a “third-world country” by Vice President Joe Biden, is getting bumped to first class with a multibillion-dollar makeover to a “globally renowned, 21st century airport,” according to plans announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week with Biden in tow.
The project will reconfigure the Queens airport from four disparate terminals to one unified terminal with expanded transportation access, increased taxiway space and best-in-class passenger amenities, according to the announcement.
The governor called the airport, as it is, “un-New York.”
“LaGuardia is slow, it”™s dated, it is a terrible front-door entranceway way to New York” he said. “It is almost universally decried as a poor representation of an airport, let alone a New York airport.”
The new airport is to be completed in two phases, with construction on a $4 billion segment of the new unified terminal expected to start early next year, following final approval by the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The first half of the unified terminal structure is expected to begin serving passengers as early as 2019 and be completed in the following 18 months.
It will be built by LaGuardia Gateway Partners, which was selected by the Port Authority in May 2015 following a competitive request for proposals process, Cuomo said.
LaGuardia Gateway Partners is a consortium of firms including Vanatge Airport Group, Skanska and Walsh Construction, HOK and Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Meridiam.
- A rendering of the unified terminal. Photo courtesy Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office
The second half of the new unified terminal will be redeveloped by Delta Air Lines, which owns two of LaGuardia”™s four terminals. Delta anticipates beginning the redevelopment of its terminals on a parallel track with the first phase of the project, according to Cuomo”™s office.
The project is expected to create 8,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs.
The pace of the construction was partially attributed to the choice not to alter the airport”™s runways, which would have delayed the project with lengthy studies and approval requirements, the governor said.
In addition to plans for luxury amenities like top-of-the-line shopping and dining, business meeting facilities and a possible 200-room hotel ”” the new airport is slated to include improvements for public and private transportation with a new AirTrain option that directly connects LaGuardia to the New York City subway and Long Island Rail Road at Mets-Willets Point Station as well as ferry access and on-site tram service to move people faster across the terminal.
“Best of all ”” it”™s not a plan, it”™s not a sketch, it”™s not a dream, it”™s not a vision ”” it”™s actually happening,” Cuomo said. “This is what New York deserves and has deserved for a long time, and now we are going to get it.”