For years, the TWA Flight Center at Kennedy International Airport in New York City, with its stark white concourse and plush-red lounge area, served as a reminder of a more romantic era of luxury air travel, before cramped seats, overstuffed bins and add-on fees became routine.
But now the terminal, designed by Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962, is about to take on a new role in the airport's future. Last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York announced the formal approval of a deal to turn the center into a hotel complex by 2018.
"It will be infused with the ethos of 1962, when the golden age of jet travel was coming of age," said Tyler Morse, chief executive of MCR Development, the company that will invest $265 million to develop a 505-room hotel, with 40,000 square feet of meeting space, restaurants and a spa, and a 10,000-square-foot observation deck.
JetBlue will be a minority partner in the hotel, which will be open to passengers flying on any airlines serving the airport, as well as the general public.
As airports become more competitive, vying for tourists and business travelers, they are getting into the hotel business. Within the last 16 months, San Francisco International Airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Baltimore-Washington International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Kennedy announced intentions to build on-site airport hotels. The Westin Denver International Airport is scheduled to open in November.
It's all part of a shift by airport hotels from primarily serving stranded passengers and rotating flight crews.
"San Francisco, New York, Denver and Atlanta are all international gateway airports," said Steven Carvell, associate dean for academic affairs at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. And they have gotten the message "to make the airport a destination in and of itself," he added.
One reason for the increase in construction is that the market is ripe. Hotels that ring airports now have an occupancy rate of 75 percent, trailing only hotels in urban areas, according to data from STR Research for the 12-month period that ended in August.
The new properties anticipate appealing to travelers who prize airport proximity over staying in an urban center. They also resemble one another; most call for four-star hotels, state-of-the-art technology, restaurants, conference and fitness facilities and access to public transportation.
"It's a luxury to be able to not have to hop into an airport van or rent a car," said Scott Berman, principal in the hospitality and leisure division at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
At the same time, the need to service stranded passengers continues. "The airline industry is rife with delays and mismanagement and it's a lot cheaper to lodge passengers right there," said Barbara E. Lichman, a lawyer specializing in aviation at Buchalter Nemer, a law firm in Irvine, Calif.
Business on 10/13/2015