FedEx has renewed the lease for its Metroplex facility at Newark Liberty International Airportfor another 20 years.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, announced briefly thatits board had authorised “a new 20-year lease with FedEx for Cargo Buildings 347, 155 and 156 atNewark Liberty International Airport”.
The deal will result in a total of $352 million in lease payments to the agency over its 20-yearterm, according to US media reports. FedEx also promised to spend another $30 million onimprovements to its 68-acre site within the next 15 years.
Jim McCluskey, a FedEx spokesman, said the company was “pleased” to have the deal in place.“Newark is one of our major hub operations in the U.S., not only for the region, butinternationally,” McCluskey was cited as saying. He noted the company operates nearly 600 flights amonth out of Newark.
FedEx opened its Metroplex facility at Newark Liberty in 1985 and built a $60 million expansion10 years later. FedEx employs about 2,100 workers at the site where it shipped nearly 400,000 tonsof cargo in 2009.
An analysis by the Port Authority last year determined FedEx was directly or indirectly linkedto 13,400 jobs and $750 million in annual wages.
The lease deal allows the port agency to reclaim nine acres of the site in an event it is neededfor a taxiway and other airport improvements under a Terminal A modernisation plan, the NJ.comwebsite reported.
