Federal authorities have signed off on letting a foreign-owned company entity run a downtown Manhattan helicopter pad that’s often utilized by the U.S. president and different dignitaries, Mayor Adams’ administration stated this week after the operation sparked nationwide safety considerations.
The considerations have been raised by Saker, the present operator of Manhattan’s Pier 6 heliport, after the town’s Financial Improvement Company introduced final month it deliberate to award the contract to run the pad to Downtown Skyport, a three way partnership made up of French and British aviation firms.
The choice by the EDC, which is managed by Adams appointees and acts as Metropolis Corridor’s personal enterprise arm, may produce a windfall for Skyport, which should pay again a number of the income it generates from the pad to the town underneath its five-year contract.
In a Dec. 4 letter protesting the EDC’s transfer, Saker President Sam Goldstein recommended there aren’t safeguards towards “foreign influence or espionage” in Skyport’s contract and questioned whether or not President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration will even grant the corporate the federal approvals required to run the pad, given Trump’s emphasis on “an ‘America First’ philosophy.”
Maryann Catalano, the EDC’s chief contracting officer, wrote in response that the town has already cleared nationwide safety points with “various federal, state and local regulatory agencies.”
A Marine Corp Osprey is pictured on the pad earlier than President Biden’s departure on April 26, 2024. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Day by day Information)
In one other protest letter to EDC dated Dec. 8, William Wachtel, Saker’s chairman, argued there are numerous different considerations about Skyport, together with an absence of expertise in managing helicopter pads within the U.S.
Wachtel wrote that EDC officers made a “false” declare in a latest presentation to Manhattan Neighborhood Board 1, which is dwelling to the Pier 6 pad, by which they described Skyport because the “operator” of Orange County’s Stewart Worldwide Airport. “This joint venture is a sales, marketing concessions business; it has no role in operating the airport,” Wachtel wrote.
Skyport, which consists of the British-owned Skyports and the French-owned Groupe ADP, stated in a press release this week EDC’s characterization was correct since ADP is a part of a enterprise that’s “operating and maintaining” Stewart Worldwide.
Marine One on the pad on April 26, 2024. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Day by day Information)
The protests come after the EDC initially in late 2022 picked Saker, which has operated the pad for practically 20 years, to maintain working it.
However in February 2023 — on the night time earlier than the deal was purported to obtain closing approval — the EDC backtracked, cancelled the procurement and launched a completely new bidding course of. EDC officers stated on the time that they had determined they needed to rewrite the deal so it included extra necessities about “waterborne freight deliveries.”
Skyport wasn’t among the many bidders who participated within the unique 2022 contract course of.
EDC’s choice handy over management of the pad to Skyport nonetheless must be greenlit by the town’s Franchise and Concession Assessment Committee, which is made up of Comptroller Brad Lander and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, amongst others.
The committee held a listening to on the Skyport award Monday, the place representatives for Lander and Levine questioned whether or not the brand new contract is doing sufficient to tamp down on helicopter visitors, a standard supply of noise air pollution within the metropolis.
It wasn’t instantly clear when the committee will take a closing vote on the brand new contract, however the EDC stated in a press release after the listening to it expects Skyport to “assume control of operations” early subsequent yr.
