The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey on May 23 approved leasing a piece of vacant land at New York Stewart International Airport to be developed into corporate jet facilities.
Over the next four or five years, a developer team of SWF Development LLC and Aviation Facilities Company (AFCO) will infuse a combined investment of nearly $120 million to build two adjacent private and corporate jet complexes and create nearly 250 permanent jobs at the airport.
“This is fantastic news and a significant investment,” Stewart Airport Commission Chairperson Paul Quartararo said in a statement to The Epoch Times. “As White Plains and Teterboro are maxed out, the Port Authority has taken the initiative to bring corporate hanger tenants to Stewart, creating more than 200 high-paying jobs.”
Compared with other airports in the region with limited development capacity, the New Windsor-based Stewart International Airport currently has about 130 acres of undeveloped land.
The new development requires no capital investment from the Port Authority. Instead, the agency will receive $43 million in rental fees from the two developers over the base lease term of 30 years, according to a Port Authority committee meeting on May 23.
Per the agreement, SWF Development will chip in $60 million to build a corporate jet complex with more than a dozen aircraft hangars on 12 acres of vacant land.
AFCO plans to spend $59 million to develop a hangar campus on just under 10 acres of undeveloped airport land.
“[Stewart International Airport] is a community and economic gem in Orange County,” Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus said in a statement. “The SWF Development and AFCO hangar projects will be a welcome addition to the growing economy of Orange County.”
“[This] is an investment in our future,” Orange County Partnership President Maureen Halahan said in a statement. “This will be a catalyst for economic development projects at [Stewart International Airport] for many years to come.”
Situated 55 miles north of New York City, the international airport has been positioned by the Port Authority as a low-cost alternative to the three largest airports in the area: John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport.
Currently, the airport has one terminal that serves several domestic and international airlines, including Breeze Airways, Allegiant Air, PLAY airlines, and Atlantic Airways.
In 2019, on the heels of Stewart’s losing the anchor international airline Norwegian Air because of the grounding of all Boeing 737 MAX planes, the Port Authority devised a five-point plan to unleash the former military airport’s potential.
The strategies included modernizing air carrier incentive programs, increasing airport visibility through new marketing initiatives, and hiring a joint venture firm comprising Avports and Paris-based Groupe ADP as the new airport operator.
Since then, the airport has picked up two international service partners, but its international volume still falls far below its Norwegian heyday.
Between 2017 and 2019, Norwegian Air served about 600,000 international passengers at the airport.
