The County of Westchester, in the U.S. state of New York, is seeking proposals from qualified airport management and development entities interested in entering into a PPP with the County under a long-term lease to operate, manage, maintain, and improve the Westchester County Airport.

The County, as the airport sponsor, desires and expects the airport to be operated in perpetuity as an aviation facility available for public use in compliance with all existing and future applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances, and in compliance with all existing and future agreements between the County, New York State and/or the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

In seeking to preserve and optimize the value of the airport to the community, the County has determined that the airport could be leased, operated, maintained and improved by an entity selected through a competitive process. The County has issued a RFP, available here. The deadline for submitting proposals is July 14, 2017.

The County’s goal is to complete the privatization, including evaluating all RFP responses, selecting the preferred proposer, negotiating favorable terms for the County, obtaining the FAA’s approval, and closing the transaction before the end of 2017.

The Westchester County Airport is located in the Towns of Harrison and North Castle and the Village of Rye Brook, New York. The Airport is located five miles from White Plains, New York, and approximately 30 miles north of Manhattan. The airport is comprised of 702 acres and serves an average of 1.75 million passengers per year. It supports a wide variety of commercial, business, and general aviation entities. AvPorts has run the county airport for nearly 40 years

Oaktree Capital Management's 40-year, US$140 million bid was the only offer in November 2016. The County abandoned that plan, citing lack of time to evaluate the Oaktree proposal and the county budget, and decided to launch this bidding process to explore the idea further.

Now, Oaktree has teamed up with Connor Capital to form the HPN Aviation Group in order to submit a new bid.

More than 20 other bidders have expressed interest since the county issued the RFP.