Federal authorities have signed off on letting a foreign-owned corporate entity run a downtown Manhattan helicopter pad that’s regularly used by the U.S. president and other dignitaries, Mayor Adams’ administration said this week after the operation sparked national security concerns.
The concerns were raised by Saker, the current operator of Manhattan’s Pier 6 heliport, after the city’s Economic Development Corporation announced last month it planned to award the contract to run the pad to Downtown Skyport, a joint venture made up of French and British aviation companies.
The decision by the EDC, which is controlled by Adams appointees and acts as City Hall’s private business arm, could produce a windfall for Skyport, which must pay back some of the revenue it generates from the pad to the city under its five-year contract.
In a Dec. 4 letter protesting the EDC’s move, Saker President Sam Goldstein suggested there aren’t safeguards against “foreign influence or espionage” in Skyport’s contract and questioned whether President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration will even grant the company 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 city has already cleared national security issues with “various federal, state and local regulatory agencies.”
“EDC vetted security concerns, including the landing of Marine One, with the appropriate regulatory agencies and was advised that there are no concerns,” Catalano wrote in a Monday letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News, referring to the U.S. military helicopter used to transport the president.
On Thursday night, in response to questions as to whether the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. had green-lighted the deal, Jeff Holmes, a spokesman for EDC, told The News that Downtown Skyport is not a foreign entity. “Downtown Skyport is an LLC registered in the United States. As well as its two parent members, ADP International Americas LLC and Skyports Inc., are US entities.” He also said EDC had consulted the Federal Aviation Administration, which confirmed there were “no national security risks.”
In another protest letter to EDC dated Dec. 8, William Wachtel, Saker’s chairman, argued there are various other concerns about Skyport, including a lack of experience in managing helicopter pads in the U.S.
Wachtel wrote that EDC officials made a “false” claim in a recent presentation to Manhattan Community Board 1, which is home to the Pier 6 pad, in which they described Skyport as the “operator” of Orange County’s Stewart International 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, said in a statement this week EDC’s characterization was accurate since ADP is part of a venture that is “operating and maintaining” Stewart International.
The protests come after the EDC originally in late 2022 picked Saker, which has operated the pad for nearly 20 years, to keep running it.
But in February 2023 — on the night before the deal was supposed to receive final approval — the EDC backtracked, cancelled the procurement and launched an entirely new bidding process. EDC officials said at the time they had decided they wanted to rewrite the deal so it included more requirements about “waterborne freight deliveries.”
The shift also came after The News reported that Saker’s competing bidder, Thoroughbred Air and Sea, had raised conflict of interest concerns about Saker’s contract renewal because Wachtel is law partners with an EDC board member, Morris Missry. The EDC says those concerns didn’t influence its decision to redo the procurement.
Skyport wasn’t among the bidders who participated in the original 2022 contract process.
EDC’s decision to hand over control of the pad to Skyport still needs to be greenlit by the city’s Franchise and Concession Review Committee, which is made up of Comptroller Brad Lander and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, among others.
The committee held a hearing on the Skyport award Monday, where representatives for Lander and Levine questioned whether the new contract is doing enough to tamp down on helicopter traffic, a common source of noise pollution in the city.
It wasn’t immediately clear when the committee will take a final vote on the new contract, but the EDC said in a statement after the hearing it expects Skyport to “assume control of operations” early next year.
