by Brian Major
Last updated: 5:31 PM ET, Tue September 22, 2015
After months of intensive discussion, John F. Kennedy International Airport's landmark TWA terminal, adjacent to JetBlue's active terminal, is officially transforming into a new hotel.
Published reports say the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the Queens, New York-based airport, has selected JetBlue and MCR Development to partner in the project to repurpose the shuttered terminal - an iconic structure built in the early 1960s and designed by famed architect Eero Saarinen - into what will be the airport's only hotel. Port Authority officials are expected to make the selection official at the agency's board meeting next week.
JetBlue and MCR reportedly emerged as frontrunners for the project following a months-long bidding process featuring several competitors. New York officials designated both the interior and exterior of the terminal historic landmarks in 1994, and in 2005 the National Park Service listed the TWA Flight Center on the National Register of Historic Places.
Port Authority officials have not announced the project's price or other details, including when the hotel is expected to open. However elements of the hotel's design released in July call for a 505-room property with 40,000 square feet of meeting space, eight restaurants and an observation deck. The old terminal will serve as the hotel's lobby, with the rest of property located in a new building behind the landmark terminal.
Among other oddities, JFK is one of the few major global airports without a hotel on the property. Several accommodations are located just outside the airport - most of these properties use buses to ferry passengers to and from the airport.
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