In the first quarter of 2016, ARK Development—a Racebrook portfolio company—will open The ARK at JFK, the world’s only animal-only airport terminal. Construction is now underway on the 178,000 square foot facility, which has made the news from Germany to Japan to India. Racebrook CEO John J. Cuticelli Jr. is no Dr. Dolittle – he has just one dog, a Cockapoo named Tucker, at home. But he is a savvy investor with an eye for unusual opportunities and assets, and so the concept of creating a world-leading animal handling facility, one that will see domestic pets, race horses, livestock, and perhaps the occasional zoo animal pass through its large doors, presented an appealing challenge. Cuticelli recently spoke about the project and its associated challenges. What a fascinating idea – the world’s only privately owned animal handling cargo terminal – how did you come up with it? Cuticelli: A Cornell veterinarian approached me with a document from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (Ed. note: a Yardi client), in which they were seeking a developer to build a 6,000 sf small animal veterinary hospital somewhere on the airport property. With my background in the airport freight business, I had some idea of the kind of animal volume that comes through the airport. Given the footprint and notoriety of JFK, my response to that was that a 6,000 square foot facility was just too small. If we wanted to make a significant contribution to animal care, it would have to be much more elaborate and fulfill the needs of the industry. That’s how it started. So what is the volume of animal traffic that passes through the airport? Cuticelli: One of the interesting things is that there’s no single place where you can...