The Massachusetts Port Authority last week approved its expected acquisition of the Worcester Regional Airport from the city of Worcester.
The authority, which operates Boston’s Logan International Airport along with other regional airports, will pay the city $15.5 million for the facility. The full price is $17 million as the city will keep some land that was considered part of the airport. MassPort has been operating the Worcester facility since January 2000. The deal will close July 1.
MassPort included the purchase in its $1 billion, five-year capital plan. It will also spend $1 million annually for the next four years for “various condition surveys and initial investments in the Worcester airport,” said MassPort’s finance director Betsy Taylor. She said as more than half of the authority’s capital program includes pay-as-you-go funding, the $15.5 million will come from operating revenues and not bond proceeds.
The ownership change comes after lawmakers last year scrapped the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and created a new bond issuer, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, to oversee most surface transportation.
MassPort’s purchase of the Worcester airport was included in that plan. Last year it also handed over its ownership of the Tobin Bridge to MassDOT.
The agency anticipates pricing $110 million of private-activity bonds at the end of July. The bonds will be exempt from the alternative minimum tax.
