Five-time NBA champion Magic Johnson has added a new role to his resume: airport investor. The former Los Angeles Laker is participating in New York City’s LaGuardia Airport redevelopment.
Johnson disclosed his involvement as the airport broke ground on its eastern section. His contribution comes through JLC Infrastructure, a joint venture between Magic Johnson Enterprises and Loop Capital Markets LLC. That partnership committed $10 million to LaGuardia Gateway Partners, the consortium overseeing construction of the airport’s western section.
“Either you are building and developing or you are going backward,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said, emphasizing the importance of ongoing investment in infrastructure. He noted that while past generations built the foundations we still use today, competitors around the world continue to invest and expand.
The new LaGuardia is scheduled to begin operations in 2020, marking the first major new U.S. airport to open since Denver International Airport began service in 1995. The overall redevelopment is slated to cost about $8 billion, with roughly $6 billion coming from private investors. The project includes ambitious design and operational changes, such as a unified terminal where passengers check in from a central concourse and shifting airport facilities closer to the Grand Central Parkway.
Relocating the terminals and support buildings will significantly increase ground operations capacity, nearly tripling the space dedicated to ground handling. The redesign also adds more than two miles of taxiways to reduce aircraft congestion and ground delays. Construction on the western portion began after a June 2016 groundbreaking and will serve carriers including United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Air Canada. Groundbreaking for the airport’s eastern segment, which is focused on Delta Air Lines’ facilities, took place more recently.
Delta is contributing approximately $3.4 billion to the redevelopment — the largest single carrier investment in the project — and will operate four concourses with 37 flexible gates. The airline’s new facilities will offer about 30 percent more concession space and an expanded Delta Sky Club that includes a sky deck.
With phased construction already underway across both east and west sections, LaGuardia’s full redevelopment is expected to be completed and fully operational by 2021, delivering a modernized airport experience and increased capacity for the New York region.