MCR lands $290M loan for TWA Hotel at JFK

Barclays provides refi for retro hotel at Eero Saarinen-designed terminal

MCR Lands $290M Loan For TWA Hotel At JFK

A photo illustration of MCR’s Tyler Morse along with the TWA Hotel at the John F. Kennedy International Airport (Getty, MCR, TWA Hotel)

MCR Development has refinanced its TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport for $290 million.

The financing comes from Barclays, according to property records. It replaces a $270 million loan from Bank of America. 

The hotel at the landmarked Eero Saarinen-designed terminal opened in 2019 after a roughly $265 million renovation. The 512-room hotel has a rooftop infinity pool, curling rink and a cocktail lounge inside a 1958 Constellation airplane.

The fresh financing was first reported by PincusCo. Eastdil Secured advised MCR on the loan.

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The TWA Flight Center was designed for Trans World Airlines by and operated as an air terminal until 2001. The terminal’s main building was almost bulldozed twice — in 1994 and 2004 — but was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 after the preservationists rallied to save it, according to REIT Magazine.

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In 2015, a partnership between MCR and JetBlue signed a 75-year lease agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and announced plans to develop the TWA Flight Center and its nearly six-acre site into JFK’s only on-airport hotel.

MCR owns and operates 150 hotels, including the High Line Hotel in New York City and the Pasadena Hotel and Pool in California, and is developing the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City, according to its website.