New food and retail atrium opens at La Guardia Airport (opening of LaGuardia MarketPlace).

MarketPlace Development and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have announced the opening of LaGuardia MarketPlace. A public/private development, the food and retail atrium at LaGuardia Airport is the first of its kind in the New York metropolitan area's airports and is the crowning touch in the $340 million expansion and modernization of LaGuardia Airport's Central Terminal Building.

Retail lease terms at LaGuardia MarketPlace are averaging from three to seven years at undisclosed rates. The only remaining space is a prime 1,180 square-foot corner location, according to Cynthia Kernan, senior vice president of leasing for The Wellspark Group, exclusive leasing agents for The LaGuardia MarketPlace.

"LaGuardia MarketPlace is the capstone of our renovation of the Central Terminal Building," said Susan M. Baer, general manager of LaGuardia Airport. "LaGuardia MarketPlace, the other retail shops in the Central Terminal Building and the many new services offered by the Port Authority of NY and NJ help bring this vital airport to the forefront of customer service."

Baer pointed out that "more than just a conduit, an airport is a place of first impressions and lasting memories. We put the emphasis on customer service and in making the overall passenger experience a positive one."

"The Central Terminal Building is a major gateway to New York City and a public place that is fundamentally linked to the metropolitan area," said Robert M. Weinberg, chairman of MarketPlace Development, a Boston-based firm that designs, develops, leases and manages retail projects at airports and other transportation facilities throughout the U.S. "We are proud of what we've been able to create with LaGuardia MarketPlace and look forward to accommodating the eight million travelers who pass through the Central Terminal Building each year."

"We're working to adapt to the ever-changing expectations of the traveler," Beer said. "Our goal is to provide a modem shopping and food service experience, anticipating what our customers want."

In 1995, the Port Authority designated MarketPlace Development as its private partner in the redevelopment of the Central Terminal Building. Since then, the company has been engaged in planning, designing, building and leasing the eating and shopping areas within the 33-year-old terminal building, which has undergone a complete renovation.

Given the Central Terminal Building's original space limitations (as is the case with many airport passenger facilities built during the 1960s' surge in air travel), MarketPlace Development has succeeded in meeting the challenge and responding to today's traveler. The company's philosophy for airport terminals is to incorporate well-known and well-respected national retailers along with specialty shops that offer a taste of what makes a given city unique. The goal is not only to change the poor perception the traveling public tends to have about airport food services and retail outlets, but also to create a more pleasant and productive environment for passengers.

"Travelers spend substantial time within airport terminals," said Beer. "When quality stores and restaurants are available, most travelers will use their time to shop or have a quick meal. Cafeteria-style restaurants run by the airline food service industry are a thing of the past, gone with the era of offering the minimum to travelers. The variety and quality of services are improving significantly. Nowhere is this truer than at LaGuardia."

Sixty percent of passengers at LaGuardia Airport are repeat business travelers. Their workaday world allows little time for shopping. However, research has shown that they will avail themselves of convenient, quality shopping and restaurant venues at airports. The business traveler at LaGuardia, along with the airport employee base which includes flight crews, ground crews and airport personnel presently handling 327,000 flights a year - comprise the "critical mass" needed to make these retail opportunities viable.

At LaGuardia MarketPlace, new shops and eateries give travelers a preview of the unique foods and shops found around New York City. Now open are the Brooklyn National Deli, a New York-style kosher deli, and Asian Chao, a Chinese eatery. Air travelers can pick up literature and magazines at Barbara's Bestsellers, a neighborhood-style bookstore based in Chicago. Cosmetics Plus, a New York City-based cosmetic retailer that recently went national, opened last month.

Final negotiations for the sit-down restaurant space are expected to conclude in the spring, and the only remaining space, a prime 1,180 square-foot comer location, is reserved for a non-food retailer, with a New York-themed retail tenant being a plus, according to Kernan of The Wellspark Group.

For each of these companies, being part of LaGuardia MarketPlace presents a first foray into the realm of airport retailing.

Lids, the world's largest retailer of hats offering 3,000 styles and the insignias of NY's sports teams, is up and running, as is General Nutrition Centers, which specializes in vitamins and diet and sports nutrition. Also open are Travel 2000, selling luggage and other travel gear, and Spellbound Music Express, offering the latest in CDs. To satisfy the business traveler, Business Traveler Services offers a business services station which offers faxing, Internet access and foreign currency exchange, and a myriad of other services. Coming soon are Burlaps, a coffee shop, and Godiva, purveyor of fine chocolates.

A table-service restaurant will be an important component within LaGuardia MarketPlace. It is projected that the new restaurant will be open next spring.

Over the last year, MarketPlace Development has opened 9,000 square feet of new retail space within the Central Terminal Building, including the food and retail court near Concourse D. That area is now fully leased and includes The New York Coffee Station, Wendy's, Sbarro's, Sweet Factory, Sunglass Hut, Warner Bros. and Hudson News. Fresh baked goods and sandwiches by Au Ben Pain are available from carts located amid three of the four Central Terminal concourses, as well as at the Au Ben Pain Care, located at the entrance to Concourse A. Hangars Bar & Grill, featuring full bar service in a comfortable pub setting, has three locations, one at Concourse A and others at C and D.

What's more, airport customers are ensured reasonable pricing on purchases at the food and retail shops in the Central Terminal Building through a "street pricing" policy. As part of the commitment to providing quality shopping experiences for airport passengers, this street pricing policy requires MarketPlace Development retail tenants to offer, goods at the same prices as comparable non-airport stores in the New York area. MarketPlace Development has also initiated a customer service hotline to answer any questions which customers may have about pricing or any other retail-oriented issues.

Collectively, the investment in new food and retail redevelopment within the Central Terminal Building totals some $18 million and comprises 45,000 square feet of retail space.

The new retail concept for LaGuardia is part of the top-to-bottom renovation of LaGuardia Airport, the New York Metropolitan area's oldest airport, that began nine years ago. By the end of the decade, combined Port Authority and airline investment in the LaGuardia Redevelopment Program is expected to exceed $800 million. The renovation program has included reconfiguring and widening the airport's roadways; expanding and improving parking facilities; improving flight runways and taxiways: rehabilitation of the passenger area at the airport's east end; modernization of the airline ticketing, gate and passenger service areas; and expansion and modernization of the Central Terminal Building.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Port Authority has operated LaGuardia Airport since 1947. Originally built to serve marine-air travel - the famous Pan American Airways "flying boats" - the airport was first dedicated on October 15, 1939, as New York City Municipal Airport. Only a month later, the name was changed to New York Municipal Airport-LaGuardia Field, and it opened to commercial traffic on December 2nd that year.

In 1947, the year the airport was leased to the Port Authority, it was renamed LaGuardia Airport. Situated just eight miles from Midtown Manhattan in the Borough of Queens, the airport occupies 680 acres bordering Flushing and Bowery bays.

LaGuardia Airport consists of 73 aircraft gates through which 20.7 million passengers passed last year.

MarketPlace Development is an innovative, five-year-old company, specifically formed to undertake retail development projects at airports across the country. The company has been awarded some of the most challenging projects in the industry, including the redevelopment and management of food and retail services at Philadelphia International Airport, and planning for the improvement of the concessions at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway Airport.