GSG hosted its latest edition of “The Inside Scoop with GSG” featuring Rick Cotton, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. In conversation with GSG Partner Justin Lapatine, Cotton explored key initiatives aimed at rebuilding critical infrastructure, enhancing customer experience, and advancing sustainability goals across the region’s transportation network.
Cotton opened the discussion by sharing insights into his career journey, which has spanned public service, environmental law, and corporate leadership as General Counsel at NBCUniversal before taking the helm at the Port Authority in 2017. He emphasized its unique nature as a bi-state agency created by an act of Congress in 1921, operating across a 14-county area with a $9.3 billion budget that is largely self-sustaining without state funding.
He also highlighted the Port Authority’s unprecedented $30 billion airport rebuild program, which includes the transformations of LaGuardia, Newark and JFK Airports. Cotton underscored the importance of public-private partnerships in funding these redevelopment projects, noting that approximately two-thirds of the LaGuardia rebuild was funded by private entities, as well as $15 billion of the $19 billion at JFK Airport.
“We committed to creating best-in-class facilities,” Cotton explained, describing how the Port Authority looked beyond its own operations to Asian and European airports to benchmark excellence. Citing recent awards and five-star ratings from customers and aviation critics alike, Cotton also emphasized the Port Authority’s renewed focus on customer experience, transforming transportation hubs from places to be endured into positive elements of travelers’ journeys, complete with soaring architecture, local concessions, and public art installations that create a distinct sense of place representative of New York and New Jersey.
Additionally, he dove into the progress on the Midtown Bus Terminal redevelopment, a project that initially faced internal headwinds at the Port Authority and significant community opposition. With all the necessary permits now in hand, he detailed how the Port Authority revised its plans based on community feedback and has now gained support from all five elected officials whose districts include the terminal area.
Throughout the discussion, Cotton demonstrated how community engagement has been essential to the Port Authority’s success. The transformation from opposition to endorsement on projects like the Bus Terminal exemplifies how infrastructure development can succeed when stakeholders are engaged and heard. As the region faces increasing challenges from climate change and growing transportation demands, Cotton’s leadership points to a future where infrastructure serves as both an economic engine and a sustainability catalyst.
The Port Authority’s investments today are not just rebuilding facilities but reimagining what public infrastructure can achieve—balancing world-class standards, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, community needs, and environmental responsibility in a model that sets new standards for public agencies nationwide.