Monday, Vice President Joe Biden and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that LaGuardia will be receiving a total revamp; the isolated terminals will be rebuilt under the same roof, and operating space for planes will be doubled to ease congestion.

“I wish everything I said that was truthful but controversial would turn out this well,” Biden joked, after calling LaGuardia Airport a “third-world terminal” last year.

The revamp would modify the entire shape of the airport, which is presently squeezed onto a small, irregular waterfront property.

LaGuardia Airport is hectic and claustrophobia-inducing.  The revamp would include total demolition, with a larger, new terminal 600 feet closer to the highway, which encircles the airport.

The new terminal would make it easier for planes to move between gates when needed. Passengers will get to their gates using elevated passageways that pass over roads. In all, almost two miles of new roads would be created.

The first phase of the project will begin in 2016, contingent upon final approval by the New York and New Jersey Port Authority, which owns the airport. A second phase would be managed by Delta Air Lines.

The first additions will be ready for use in 2019.

“New Yorkers deserve and have deserved this for a long time. And now we’re finally going to have it,” said Cuomo.

Currently, LaGuardia’s antiquated feel is, as Cuomo describes, “un-New York: it’s slow, dated, and has a terrible front-door entrance way to New York,“ he added.

Biden, who openly insulted LaGuardia’s layout last year, praised the governor for “thinking big.”

Biden’s influence was essential, Cuomo said — approvals that generally take years were expedited by Biden’s office.

The plan’s first phase will cost $4 billion, half from private funding. Delta Air Lines will be a partner in the project.

LaGuardia’s revamp is part of a program aimed at four New York airports. Stewart Airport and Republic Airport  would both get Startup New York designation, offering new businesses to operate tax free for a decade. Furthermore, New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport would have one of its architecturally significant terminal building reconfigured as a hotel.

The construction will spark tourism, commerce, and thousands of new jobs. Screening space will be tripled, concession space improved, and terminals better connected, including new roadways and parking garages.

"LaGuardia and JFK are New York’s economic anchors, and deserve to be the world’s finest,” Biden said.

From a real estate perspective, a LaGuardia revamp in the amount of $4B is a benchmark of government commitment to significant infrastructure improvement. Furthermore, this demonstrates government willingness in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) to achieve progress: the project’s funding will be about half private. We will begin to see more private-public partnerships, as state-owned properties with large amounts of money needed will look to private real estate investors. 

Additionally, it’s possible to see reverse public-private partnerships, in which private investment reaches out to the public in order to be profitable and socially responsible. 

Neighborhoods surrounding these newly developed or redeveloped areas will likely see an economic boost resulting from the new jobs created. This means strength in both the sale and rental markets of the area. An increase in the strength of the market will mean higher property values. 

A rendering of LaGuardia Airport’s reconstruction, including new taxiways and passageways to improve fluidity and convenience.

• NYC Real Estate