‘SEXY’ JFK HOTEL
Takes flight amid $13B airport overhaul
Kennedy Airport’s mod new Jet Age-themed hotel opened to the public Wednesday, marking a major milestone as the state prepares to launch a $13 billion overhaul of the travel hub.
The TWA Hotel turns the once-defunct Trans World Airlines terminal into a 512room lodging chock-full of fancy amenities that are not typically found at a New York City airport.
Tyler Morse, the CEO of MCR, the hotel’s developer, described it as “sexy,” which prompted a bizarre response from Gov. Cuomo.
“I can’t refer to a terminal as a sexy terminal,” quipped Cuomo. “That would then raise all sorts of followup questions. Is it a male terminal? Is it a female terminal? What’s the sexual orientation of the terminal? How do you touch the terminal?”
In its heyday, the terminal had a certain level of sex appeal — it’s where the Beatles first arrived in New York in 1964. Wednesday’s ribboncutting ceremony was graced by a cover band of the moptopped rockers.
The hotel’s design intends to evoke a sense of nostalgia for a time when air travel was seen as more pleasant than painful.
The building, which connects to Kennedy’s Terminal 5 via flight tubes made famous in the 2002 film “Catch Me If You Can,” makes use of the former 200,000-square-foot terminal as a lobby. Morse said it is now “the greenest building in the entirety of New York City.”
A cocktail bar built inside a restored 60-year-old airplane once used for drug-running bookends the exuberant space.
The building is capped with a 66,000-square-foot roof that contains an “infinity” pool, offering views of the airport runways. It has a large fitness center that anyone at the airport can pay to use and a restaurant from world-renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.
Guests will have the option to book a fourhour stay in the hotel for $139, an effort to make it more useful for travelers on layovers.
Cuomo said the hotel’s opening is an early sign of the upcoming plan to renovate at Kennedy, which currently serves roughly 63 million passengers a year — a number that is expected to grow to 100 million by 2050.
The project will connect the airport’s eight terminals, and also includes overhauls to access roads.
The first gates from the reconstruction are set to open in 2023, with a completion date of 2025.
“You are on the cusp of an entire JFK renovation,” said Cuomo. “It is going to be what JFK deserves, which is the front door for an international community.”