Port Authority Ends Talks with Amazon for Controversial Newark Airport Air Freight Hub

Negotiations with retailing giant Amazon to create a proposed 250,000-square-foot global air freight terminal at Newark Liberty Airport have ended, officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Thursday.

“Unfortunately, the Port Authority and Amazon have been unable to reach an agreement on final lease terms and mutually concluded that further negotiations will not resolve the outstanding issues,” said Huntley Lawrence, the Port Authority’s chief operating officer.

“The growth of air cargo and the redevelopment of airport facilities in a manner that benefits the region as well as the local community remain a top priority of the Port Authority. Moving forward, the agency will examine options and determine the best future utilization of these cargo facilities,” he added.

An authority spokesman declined to say what the outstanding issues were or detail the next steps in leasing the airport property and two existing buildings.

Amazon officials said they were disappointed they could not make a deal to create the facility, which was slated to bring 1,000 jobs to New Jersey.

“After months of good faith negotiations with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, we’re disappointed to report that we’ve been unable to reach a final deal for the regional air hub at Newark Liberty International Airport,” Maria Boschetti, an Amazon spokeswoman, said in a statement. “Despite this outcome, we value our relationship with the Port Authority, and we’re proud of our robust presence in New Jersey and look forward to continued investments in the state.”

Officials from Make the Road NJ, one of the groups that opposed the lease, said Amazon “walked away” after it was “unwilling to meet minimum requirements the Newark and Elizabeth communities asked for on labor and environmental practices for the deal.”

Amazon officials did not immediately respond to a request to comment on whether labor and environmental issues contributed to the end of negotiations with the Port Authority.

“This is a great victory for South Ward (of Newark) residents who came together in solidarity for clean air and good gobs,” said Kim Gaddy, executive director of South Ward Environmental Alliance. “I applaud all the residents for their participation to fight for a healthy and vibrant environment where families can work and thrive.”

The announcement ends months of negotiations and public opposition of a process that started on August 5 when the Port Authority Board of Commissioners authorized negotiations for a lease with Amazon to develop an air freight hub on the airport’s north side on the site of existing cargo buildings. Amazon’s proposal was selected from several submitted.

Under that proposed 20-year lease, Amazon would have spent $125 million to redevelop two 1990s vintage buildings into a new state-of-the-art air cargo campus that would have created 1,000 jobs.

But the proposal was almost immediately mired in controversy after Port Authority officials were accused of fast tracking the proposal after it was a last minute add-on to the board agenda last August. Authority officials defended the actions, saying the procurement for the lease was done publicly.

Opponents — which included residents from Newark and Elizabeth, employees at the existing airport facilities at the Amazon site and unions — criticized the agency. They alleged the August meeting provided “zero opportunities for debate or public comment on the Amazon Newark airport deal.”

“This fight has shown us that when we come together and fight against corporate greed and environmental destruction, our communities win,” said David Lenis, an Elizabeth resident and member of Make the Road NJ.

“As an Elizabeth resident, where we have been designated an ‘overburdened community’ (from pollution) by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, this is a huge victory for our communities of color, workers and environmental justice advocates,” he said.

In the following months, speakers opposing the lease were regular fixtures at board meeting, appearing by video during the height of the pandemic. When in-person meetings resumed in March, they staged demonstrations outside Port Authority offices and spoke in person.

At the meetings, current employees at the existing airport facilities voiced their concerns in English and Spanish about what would happen to their union jobs if a lease was reached with Amazon. Concerns about Amazon’s track record on working conditions, employee injuries and wages and benefits were among the issues raised by workers.

Port Authority officials countered concerns by outlining policies they said the agency has in place to protect workers with multiple worker safety protections and a policy to bring airport workers to a $19 per hour minimum wage by 2023. Contractors also are required to use union construction workers and enter into a dialog with unions seeking to represent employees, officials said.

Union members also said they were pleased negotiations for the Amazon facility ended.

“We are setting a new standard, corporations coming into our communities must guarantee good jobs, clean air and be accountable to working-class people,” said George Boada, a lifelong Elizabeth resident and Teamsters Local 863 and Joint Council 73 member. “We have shown that when workers and community members unite together, we are more powerful than the largest corporations in the world, even Amazon.”

Neighborhood residents demanded that impacts they faced from increased truck traffic, air pollution and the detrimental health effects from that pollution and how Amazon proposed to mitigate them, be part of the negotiations and that community representatives.

Organizers said they “knocked on thousands of doors” to inform residents in Elizabeth and Newark communities surrounding the airport about the proposed Amazon deal.

They were joined by public officials —, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Elizabeth Mayor J. Christian Bollwage, U.S. Rep Donald Payne, Jr., D-10th — who urged the authority to end “secret negotiations” and meet with city officials and community groups to address concerns about traffic, air pollution and jet noise from the proposed air freight center.

While union officials from 32BJ SEIU, which represents 13,000 service sector workers in New Jersey, praised the Port Authority for upholding standards for workers, they also said the airport lease was a miss opportunity for Amazon.

“We take no pleasure in Amazon’s inability to seize upon this incredible opportunity to create good jobs and maintain labor standards that benefit the community while still being successful,” said Kevin Brown, SEIU 32BJExecutive Vice President and NJ State Director. “In New Jersey, companies can operate union without sacrificing their success or the health and well-being of the workers.”

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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected].

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