Airline leases extended at Newark Airport.

An extension of the master lease agreements with the seven major U.S. airlines serving Newark International Airport and funding to advance planning and design of a new bridge linking Staten Island and New Jersey highlighted the last meeting of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners.

The Board authorized extensions of up to 20 years of the master lease agreements with the major tenant airlines at Newark International Airport. The leases for Terminals A and B, entered into in 1972 and 1973 and set to expire in 1998, will now expire in 2018. The lease for Terminal C, entered into in 1984 and amended in 1989, will now expire in 2013.

The lessee airlines are American, TWA, United and USAir in Terminal A; Delta and Northwest in Terminal B; and Continental in Terminal C. The leases cover aircraft gates and building space in the airport's three major terminals, and specify the airlines' financial contribution to the costs of major components of the airport's ongoing $1.3 billion redevelopment program.

The Newark International Airport Redevelopment Program is designed to balance the airport's landside capacity with its airside capacity, in order to sustain continued growth in the number of air travelers. Its main elements include:

* An on-airport monorail connecting terminals, parking lots and rental car areas, expected to be completed in the Fail;

* A new international arrivals facility, also expected to open in the Fall; and

* New and expanded roadways airport-wide.

Newark International Airport accommodated an estimated total of 28 million passengers in 1994, an increase of about 8.5 percent over 1993's volume.

Goethals Bridge Planning/Design Funds

The Board also approved funding of $22.7 million to complete the environmental permits process, other approvals and preliminary design for a proposed expansion and modernization of the Goethals Bridge, which links Staten Island, NY, with Elizabeth, NJ. The project would entail building a new span parallel to the existing bridge for eastbound traffic and converting the existing bridge to westbound only.

The new crossing would provide three 12-foot-wide lanes in each direction, rather than the two narrower lanes each way on the existing bridge. That would allow for priority lanes for buses, vans and carpools, as well as shoulders to accommodate disabled vehicles.

The funding will be used to complete the process of obtaining required approvals, permits and licenses, including a Final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision from the U.S. Coast Guard, and to complete preliminary engineering design work.

In other actions, the Board authorized:

* An agreement with a brokerage firm to be selected that will seek to identify prospective tenants for a block of 600,000 square feet of office space on the 92nd through 103rd floors of One World Trade Center;

* A $250,000 contribution to the Regional Alliance for Small Contractors, as well as up to $40,000 in in-kind services. The not-for-profit organization, which inccludes ten public agencies and a number of private firms, provides training programs, access to financing and technical assistance to regional minority-owned, woman-owned and small firms;

* Declaring surplus and negotiating the sale of about 3.5 acres of vacant land in Jersey City, NJ., the site of the former PATH Henderson Street Car Shop. The Car Shop, constructed in 1910, was demolished last year following the relocation of PATH maintenance operations to Harrison, NJ.

* Amending a 1989 agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to provide additional funding for a bi-state demonstration project that would use ash from resource recovery plants in roadway construction materials;

* Amending the lease with the Teleport Communications Group (TCG) covering the subleasing of additional land at the Staten Island facility to IDB Communications Group, Ltd. Under the agreement, TCG, which currently operates 19 satellite earth stations at the Teleport, will be authorized to install up to nine additional stations;

* A five-year, seven-month lease with the law firm of O'Melveny & Meyers for 10,800 square feet of space at the Newark Legal and Communications Center. Now based elsewhere in Newark, the 100-year-old firm has 500 lawyers located in nine offices worldwide;

* A lease with Bunzl Distribution USA, Inc., a major distributor of paper and plastic products used in the food service and personal hygiene industries, for 144,350 square feet of warehouse and office space and 50,000 square feet of parking and loading areas on a major portion of the former Pan Am maintenance base at John F. Kennedy International Airport;

* A lease supplement with Distribution & Auto Service, Inc., the exclusive U.S. processor for the Nissan Motor Corporation, to add 20 acres to its 58-acre property at the Elizabeth-Port Authority, Marine Terminal for the import and export of motor vehicles;

* A ten-year lease with Sunglass Hut Trading Corporation, an international retailer of designer sunglasses and accessories, for the construction and operation of a kiosk in a 120 square-foot area at the Port Authority Bus Terminal; and

* Amending an existing agreement with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and the State of New Jersey to allow the Turnpike Authority to re-align and widen the I-278 approach roadway to the Goethals Bridge, part of which is Port Authority property.