NEWARK – With Gov. Chris Christie courting corporate dollars to be jettisoned from anti-business Illinois, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno announced another New Jersey state-meets-business venture at Newark Liberty International Airport.
In preparation for the 2014 NFL Super Bowl, Guadagno and Port Authority Deputy Executive Director Bill Baroni announced a $34 million private investment to expand the Newark Airport Marriott, and another $130 million in infrastructure improvements and continued expansion after the football gala.
Host Hotels & Resorts, owners of the Newark Airport Marriott, are committing to a total of $164 million in investments in exchange for a 40-year lease extension approved by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board of Directors on Thursday.
The Port Authority, which owns the hotel land, was receiving roughly $1 million per year under their agreement with the hotel, until their take recently boomed to $2.2 million annually. The agreement is based on a minimum annual revenue stream from the hotel, and a percentage of gross receipts, according to the Port Authority.
Marriott is not adding any additional rooms in the renovation and expansion project; the major addition for the big game will be a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and upgraded food and drink outlets.
The entire project is expected to produce 75 to 100 permanent jobs, and another 125 to 150 construction jobs in the short-term. Overall, the project should inject $14 million in wages and $60 million in economic activity into the local, regional, and state economy, according to a release from the Port Authority.
Marriott General Manger John Magnifico said work will begin immediately.
The Marriott was currently under lease until 2015, an agreement that dates back 28 years when the building was erected.
“Jobs are coming,” Baroni said, alluding to other economic development projects the Port Authority is working on.
Spearheading the economic development charge for the Christie administration, Guadagno touted this as the “first major project” in preparation for the 2014 Super Bowl. She is awaiting a commission report on what New Jersey needs to do particularly to prepare for the football extravaganza; for instance, does the area have enough hotel rooms for the expected turnout. (Guadagno said it was a “complex formula” used by the commission to determine the necessary local lodgings.)
Gov. Christie’s brother, Todd Christie, is one of the stakeholders on the preparation team examining the 2014 game, she said, along with the NFL, representatives from the state of New York and New York City, the Port Authority, transportation representatives, and other key players. Guadagno did not immediately know when the commission report is expected.
Baroni called it a “historic agreement,” and a win-win-win for the hotel, the Port Authority, and the unemployed laborers.
“It doesn’t happen without people working together for a common good,” he said, crediting Christie and Guadagno for taking the lead.
The game will be hosted at the New Meadowlands Stadium, a few exits north of Newark International on the N.J. Turnpike.
Baroni called Newark International and the Marriott the “gateway to the Super Bowl,” the first cold-weather outdoor championship game since it was dubbed the Super Bowl in 1967.
He also highlighted other infrastructure upgrades the Port Authority has been involved in at Newark International, like their $350 million investment in Terminal B and their partnership with Continental Airlines on a $1 billion private investment in Terminal C.
As Guadagno noted, the Host Hotels & Resorts agreement was one of the first official acts by new Port Authority Chairman David Samson, who was appointed by Christie and approved by the Senate last week, and sworn in at yesterday’s Port Authority board meeting in Manhattan.
Appearing today as acting governor with Christie out of the state, Guadagno said, through moves like this private-public partnership, she anticipates that “New Jersey’s coming out of this recessionary period ahead (of other states)…Illinois has taken a different path.”
Few members of the statehouse press corps appeared for Guadagno’s first press availability as acting governor; even so, her staff cut short the question-and-answer period as queries about the Marriott project began to dwindle.