Javits Center

Plans for a soaring new hotel across from an expanded Javits Center have now gone the way of, well, an expanded Javits Center.

With expansion plans scaled back months ago, the Paterson administration earlier in June refunded the deposits of the three bidders vying to build the Javits Hotel, a tower planned to hold at least 1,200 rooms along 11th Avenue at 35th Street. Plans for the site and hotel are now unclear, and the state would need to undergo the lengthy process of a new environmental review, then a new request for proposals, before awarding the job to any developer.  read more »

Investors, their pockets bulging with foreign capital, will set down in Manhattan this September to eye local real estate investment opportunities, rub shoulders, and draw American investment overseas.

Cityscape -- the firm that put on a popular Dubai convention last year -- will host the the Cityscape USA exhibition on Sept. 10 and 11 at the Jacob Javits Center.  read more »

The video above, courtesy of The Observer's Azi Paybarah, features City Council Speaker Christine Quinn expounding this morning on major development projects like the Javits Center expansion and renovation; the stalled Moynihan Station plan; and the Related Companies' West Side rail yards plans.

"I really see all three of them as critically important," Ms. Quinn said. Of Related's rail yards plan specifically: "Now, yesterday, we had a terrific step forward...  read more »

Almost from the moment it was completed in 1986, conventioneers and city and state officials realized the Javits Center was too small to satiate the demand for New York-based trade shows, expositions and conventions, and the facility would need to grow. But in the two decades since, the Javits expansion has turned into a never-ending snafu, as countless barriers—ballooning costs, a failed Olympics bid, dissent from the convention industry—have imperiled any sort of measurable progress.  read more »

Two business organization leaders said at an Assembly hearing today that they wanted to see an expanded convention center in midtown Manhattan, shedding some doubt on talk of a long-term plan to build a new convention center in Sunnyside, Queens, or New Jersey.

Both Joseph Spinnato, CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, and Mark Scheinberg, who heads up the New York Auto Show and spoke on behalf of a group of Javits users, said convention hosts come to New York to be at its center.  read more »

Last week, while The Observer was on holiday, the state made clear that its once grand plans for expanding the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center have been dramatically scaled back, with the dream of a major expansion all but dead.

The admission by the state’s development czar Patrick Foye, who was speaking at a hearing chaired by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, came after almost a full year of review—one that found the expected costs of the project to exceed its $1.8 billon budget by more than $1 billion.  read more »

After floating a number of multibillion-dollar plans to expand the Javits Convention Center, the state’s economic development agency is considering a drastically scaled-down version.  read more »

In an effort to keep up with the hotel development explosion in the city, The New Yorker Hotel announced today that it will undergo a $65 million renovation.

Located at 481 Eighth Avenue, The New Yorker was the largest hotel in the city when it opened in 1931. The expected renovations include a complete overhaul of furniture, carpets, wallpaper and fixtures as well as a serious clean-up job on the front of the building, according to a press release. Oh, and the historic hotel will step into the 21st century by improving Wi-Fi service and television programming.

There is one other big reason for the renovations: The expansion of the Javits Center. The massive convention center/event space, which sits just three blocks west of the hotel, is expected to double in size by 2010. The New Yorker will already be all cleaned up by then as the revamping is expected to be finished by 2008.

The full release about the project is after the jump.  read more »

Most of the book industry wants a hotel room and room service paid for by the boss.  read more »

The Real Estate was wrong about one thing: predicting that Mike Petralia, the president of the Convention Center Development Corporation would be leaving at the end of March. It turns out, he will stay through June--but in an undefined capacity. Starting April 16, Barbara Lampen, assistant director of the Freedom Tower project at the Port Authority, will take over his job.

Is that a sign of the caliber of mess that the convention center expansion is becoming?

The announcement was made last Thursday by the state economic development agency.

Full statement after jump.  read more »

- Matthew Schuerman Correction: An earlier post mischaracterized the way in which the announcement was distributed.

Aides to Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff concluded that the current design for the Javits Convention Center expansion would cost between $1.93 billion and $2.2 billion, up from $1.68 billion, according to a March 9 memo obtained by The Real Estate. What's more, the amount of exhibition and meeting space that the expansion would add seems to have shrunk a bit from the plan approved last summer, from 520,000 square feet to 345,000 square feet.

The memo, which preceded the recent pow-wow including Mr. Doctoroff, Senator Chuck Schumer and Governor Eliot Spitzer, argues that it is preferable to move ahead with the current design, which expands Javits a block and a half to 40th Street and adds a floor, rather than extending it a block to the south as others have suggested. (The current design would be less expensive, the memo argues. A more radical plan, involving the western rail yards, was not considered.) The memo also suggests looking at a "phased closing of Javits" as well as "closing Javits altogether during construction" to see if it would save money.

Javits junkies will remember the good ol' days, before security concerns, construction inflation and detailed cost estimates, when conventioneers thought they could build the even larger expansion outlined in the 2004 environmental-impact statement with about a billion bucks.

Errol Cockfield, spokesman for the Empire State Development Corporation, which is overseeing the joint city-state project, wouldn't comment on the estimates, saying that the state was reviewing the current design and would make a decision about how to proceed in early May.

- Matthew Schuerman

Brit Richard Rogers, who will design Tower 3 at the World Trade Center site, has won the Pritzker Prize, the top honor in architecture. As The Times notes, Mr. Rogers has been busy as of late in New York, and not just in lower Manhattan:

[He] now has four projects under way in the city: an expanded Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan's Far West Side; a tower at the World Trade Center site; a complex at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens; and a redesign of the East River waterfront.

- Tom Acitelli

Jon Bon Jovi is "headlining" BEA, which is actually not a big concert but a book industry expo held in the Javits Center.

PW Daily reports:

The singer will perform, with Amy Grant, at Town Hall on June 2 during BEA. The rockers, who both have forthcoming titles from the Doubleday imprint Flying Dolphin Press, will hit the stage for charity as part of the Saturday Night Benefit, raising money for the Book Industry Foundation.

Rock on!

- Tom McGeveran

Mike Petralia, the state official overseeing the increasingly convoluted Javits Convention Center expansion, is leaving his job by the end of the month, according to sources. Appointed by the Pataki administration less than two years ago, he was not expected to last long once Governor Spitzer took over, especially given the fact that the new Governor is pushing for a new design of the $1.7 billion expansion.

Mr. Petralia's boss, Patrick Foye, the co-chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, said he would not comment on personnel matters, nor did Mr. Petralia return a telephone message left at his office on Friday.

- Matthew Schuerman

The Spitzer administration wants to scrap the current $1.8 billion plan to expand the Jacob Javits Convention Center on the far West Side. Crain's reports that Governor Spitzer will meet on Monday with Senator Chuck Schumer, a critic of the current expansion plan (he says it's not big enough), and with Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, who came up with the plan working with the Pataki administration.

Stay tuned. Changes for Javits are likely afoot, and may sweep over more of the West Side than originally anticipated:

"I think there are major changes in the offing," says Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester. "The approved plan simply does not create a world-class convention center.''

- Tom Acitelli

The short-list of potential developers for the Javits Center hotel was supposed to come out on Monday (PDF), but considering that only three bidders had submitted qualified proposals by the Jan. 12 deadline anyway, the Empire State Development Corporation decided to forgo the formality.

Otherwise, however, A.J. Carter, the agency's spokesman, said that the process was still on track to select a winner by March 1.

- Matthew Schuerman

• Plans for unusual housing complex in South Bronx.
[NY Times]
• Bloomberg to propose cutting property taxes.
[NY Times]
• Mayor names new head of Economic Development Corp.
[NY Times]
• WTC Visitor Center counts 100,000th visitor.
[NY Times]
• Nets ink record name rights deal for Brooklyn arena.
[NY Post]
• Bids arrive for Javits Center hotel.
[NY Post]
• Spitzer blocks rent-regulation changes.
[Daily News]
• Hamptons housing market doing well?
[NY Sun]

Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send along tips and links.

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Some of the biggest real-estate names, locally and nationally, are drawing up plans for a 70-story h  read more »

AIG Takes Risk in Big Downtown Lease "If 2006 was a year that confirmed downtown's renewed relevance, then what a way to finish. In one of the largest deals of last year, the insurance giant AIG has signed a 250,000-square-foot lease at Financial Square at 32 Old Slip." Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin. East Village Cafe Pairs Books with Booze "Like countless locales around the city, the new Rapture Cafe & Books at 200 Avenue A had thrown a New Year's Eve party, complete with champers and other alcohol--despite the fact that Rapture doesn't have a liquor license. Yet." Go to Counter Espionage by Chris Shott. Shvo Goes Downtown in Latest Condo Buy "Star real-estate broker Michael Shvo already has quite a portfolio of apartments in Manhattan--and not just to sell. Though he already owns several, he's just bought himself a new apartment at 15 Broad Street, a new condo with the chic moniker 'Downtown by Philippe Starck.' (What's with the building names that sound like book-report titles?)" Go to Manhattan Transfers by Max Abelson. Developers Vie for Javits Hotel Subsidies "Some of the biggest real estate names, locally and nationally, are drawing up plans for a 70-story hotel across the street from the Javits Center in the West Side's emerging Hudson Yards district, contemplating such revenue enhancers as luxury condos and retail boutiques to make the building work for them. They're also trying to figure out how much public subsidy they can get away with asking for." Go to story by Matthew Schuerman. Take a Look Back at Manhattan Real Estate in '07 "The Manhattan real-estate market can be as predictable as the changing of the years. Historical trends grip the various markets--hotel, housing, office, investment sales--and hold tight year in and year out, with little variation. So we're going to go way out on a limb, this first week of January, and fast-forward 12 months to gaze back at the 2007 Manhattan real-estate market." Go to The Lab by Tom Acitelli. Sign up for The Observer's weekly real estate news email blast.

• The overeager minds at the Battery Park City Authority have decided to fill in fifty acres of the Hudson River, making way for affordable housing. After all, why should only the upper classes get real estate on the water? (Crain's premium)
• Spitzer and Faso have graciously lended their support to plans for a Second Avenue subway, and a LIRR/Grand Central tunnel, and a city-funded No. 7 train expansion to the Javits Center. And a new Tappan Zee Bridge--but that's only because they like the name. (The New York Times)
• Louis Sullivan invented the skyscraper (plus ornamental terra cotta!) and all he got was this lousy symposium at Cooper Union. And a beer-bash at the Woolworth Building. (Interior Design)
• Why is Chinatown cool again? Because magical old women do really magical things every weekend in Seward Park. Then the condos follow. (Vice Magazine)
• Haute LivingNY has been born into our increasingly wonderful world. The first $7 issue delves into "New York's Real Estate Dynasties' Global Domination." Amazing. (Curbed)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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Suddenly, Mayor Bloomberg and Sen. Chuck Schumer are pushing for a second, $600 million Javits Center expansion to get underway by the end of the year at the same time the first phase gets going. Bonus prize for those who find details of how they want to pay for it in the press release after the jump. -Matthew Schuerman  read more »

In the afternoon, you have the Public Authorities Control Board likely shooing in the Javits Center. The more up-in-the-air vote is in the morning, when Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff would like to see the M.T.A. approve the city's offer of $500 million for development rights associated with the West Side rail yards. Officially, according to a spokeswoman, the M.T.A. will be discussing the 2007 budget. The rail yards bid is not on the agenda as of now.

Why is this so important? Because Doctoroff is trying to get the bonds out the door to bring the subway down 11th Avenue, but the city can't issue the bonds until it tells buyers how it will pay them back. This is such a marvelously complex transaction that the M.T.A.'s dithering will likely cost the project another month--or even two, since the transit agency's board does not usually meet in August.  read more »

• The real estate industry can be so fickle: ex-Sunshine Groupie (and ex-Trumper) Jacquelyn Sonenberg joined Stribling Marketing Associates a year ago, and within weeks she had climbed to its pinnacle. But yesterday, after nary a full year there, Ms. Sonenberg has left the building. That's what happens when you help market condos in the Plaza Hotel. (The Real Deal)
• What happened at the Public Authorities Control Board's big vote on the $1.7 billion Javits Center expansion plan? Nothing. Those lovable PACB populists insisted that notice for yesterday's meeting "wasn't widely enough circulated"--it was announced no less than a month ago, of course--so the vote will be pushed back to July 26. Does anyone smell a foul conspiracy? (Crain's)
• McMansions are not pleasant, new McMansions in Brooklyn are even worse, and two new McMansions on either side of your Madison home is a particularly unfortunate situation. Especially if you're an 85-year old stroke victim--or, as your lawyer might put it, "the ham in a ham sandwich." (NY Daily News)
• The only thing worse: springing $79,000 for the same exact ultra-hip furniture that hundreds of your neighbors are springing for as well. But if you're too uninspired to buy your own ottomans and such, 52nd Street's new 215-unit "Link" apartments may just be perfect. (NY Post)
• (Mostly) True Letter of the Day: Dear CEOs of The World's Biggest Insurance Companies. My name is William, and I'm the New York City Comptroller. I urge you in the strongest terms possible to please give the $4.6 billion you owe our pal Larry (for the World Trade Center, of course.) I consider your previous actions to have been in bad faith. There, I've said it--although I'm sorry for using such strong terms. (Crain's)
- Max Abelson
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This Tuesday, the Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation wil be holding a discussion on the Javits Center, moderated by Charles Bagli, of the New York Times. Participants include Kent Barwick (President, Municipal Art Society), Henry Wollman (Director, Steven L. Newman Institute Baruch College), and David Weprin (Chair, Finance Committee New York City Council).

Full release is after the jump.  read more »

Cristyne Nicholas, president of NYC & Company, who once called the Jets stadium proposal "a win-win for the city" is now praising Christine Quinn for her support of part of that original proposal: an expanded Javits Center.

"Speaker Christine Quinn is a strong and steady supporter of New York's travel and tourism industry, and a champion for the city's tourism workforce that makes the Big Apple shine," she said in an NYC & Company press release today entitled "Leaders from Labor, Tourism and Business Laud Speaker Christine Quinn's Support of Javits Expansion Plan."

In February of 2003, Quinn was quoted in The Observer on the Jets Stadium proposal:

"It seems somewhat unfair that the Jets are going to dump all of their corporate resources into this when they are up against unfunded community groups who are just trying to protect their neighborhood and fight for responsible development," said Council member Christine Quinn of the West Side.

So, without passing any judgement, is the Javits Center expansion "responsible development?"

—Nicole Brydson

LAURIE: I recently spent the morning at the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show at the Javits Center. It gave me a legitimate excuse to not commute to my office in deepest New Jersey, and secretly I thought I might find some wedding-planning inspiration. Not so much, although I did eat a tasty Broasted chicken wing and spoke for several entertaining moments with the guys manning a grease trap display. I met up with a friend and fellow food writer before the show opened, and as we sat drinking our coffee, I tentatively started talking about wedding dress shopping.

"I guess my big issue is that I don't like feeling compelled to lose weight for an event. Like, if I weren't engaged, I wouldn't be putting this pressure on myself," I said.

My friend, a real no-nonsense type, said, "So you need to either decide to lose some weight , or just decide that you're happy with your size..."

"And shut the fuck up about it?" I said.

"Yes. And anyway," she added, "If I saw you in the airport and didn't know you, I wouldn't think, oh God, please don't let her have the seat next to mine. It's not like you have to be lifted out of buildings with a crane or anything."

Um, thanks?  read more »

Lord Richard Rogers--the architect who almost lost his job on the Javits Center expansion--is no Lenora Fulani Lenora Fulani. That's one of her allies in the Independence Party, attorney Harry Kresky explained it during a party meeting on Saturday in midtown.

According to Kresky,

Shelly Silver, the speaker of the New York State Assembly [and] Anthony Weiner, a congressman who ran for mayor, both Jews by the way, essentially said that unless this architect recanted, backed down,and said that he is pro-Israel, and that he attended the meeting by accident, that they would make sure he didn't get the contract. And unlike Dr. Fulani, this architect backed down and recanted. So that's the level of muscling that's going on in the Independence Party and in the country right now.

By the way.

--Azi Paybarah

State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky poked holes in the plan for the Javits Convention Center expansion Thursday morning—and afternoon. A lot of them were awfully small holes, but Brodsky—who is running for state attorney general, remember--did get the staff of the Convention Center Development Corporation to admit that they might have to do a supplemental environmental impact statement because the plan has changed since the one for Hudson Yards was completed. No one would specify how long that would take but figure another two to six months.  read more »

The Javits Center expansion seems likely not to be "dazzling," according to Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.

It's not that the plan isn't great; it's just that, like the original (which might have resembled the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris but ... didn't), politics inevitably gets in the way of good design:  read more »

Embarrassed by the rejection of a Jets stadium for the West Side and the endless squabbling about the design for a Freedom Tower at ground zero, city and state officials overseeing the Javits project seem to be in a mad rush to push it through. With shadowy political maneuvering, they have stifled the kind of public debate that could have led to a more ambitious vision for the convention center and the decrepit neighborhoods next to it.

- Tom McGeveran

Robert Boyle, the chairman of the operating corporation that runs the Jacob K.  read more »

Where will Johnny Damon end up living? Our bet is on a big, brassy condo building near the FDR.

Deck-shuffling at the Javits Center has ignited a battle between Moinian and Witkoff to build the convention hall's hotel.

Manhattan real estate is expensive! That's about all anyone can agree upon after reading the fourth-quarter reports from 2005. Plus: Otto Preminger's old townhouse is on sale again; and the man who brought you Who Wants to Be a Millionaire buys eight millionaire's worth of townhouse in Tribeca.

Not in My Upper East Side! Locals blast a city plan to build an airshaft for the new water tunnel at 59th Street and First Avenue. Plus: Chelsea and the Village want one of their own to run the State Liquor Authority--and tighten the grip on an out-of-control bar scene.  read more »

Our gal Moira Hodgson loves her some oysters. WD-50 is the catch of the day.

Governor Pataki replaced Robert Boyle as chairman of the corporation overseeing the Javits Convention Center Friday. Boyle has disagreed with Charles Gargano, a top Pataki economic development aide, about the design for the $1.4 billion expansion of the center, located in the far West 30’s.

Back in 1997, Pataki had high praise for the man: “Bob Boyle transformed the Javits Center from a mob-infested facility burdened by high costs and poor service into one of the premier convention centers in the world with a seemingly unending list of shows and exhibits." But Friday an aide to the Governor said that it made sense to replace Boyle since he was a registered lobbyist and that his term had expired long ago. Boyle, who was appointed chairman in 1995, will remain on the governing board of the convention center.

State Assemblymember Richard Brodsky, a Democrat running for state Attorney General, said the decision was made because of the opinions Boyle put forth at a Dec.14 state hearing. “This all came out of the hearing, at which he opposed the Gargano model,” said Brodsky, who chairs the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions. The Pataki aide called that contention “ridiculous…. Ask Brodsky if he thinks a registered lobbyist should be chairman of the operating corporation.”

Boyle favors putting the convention center hotel on 42nd Street, while Gargano believes it should go on 34th or 36th streets along 11th avenue.  read more »

Joseph Spinnato, the president of Hotel Association of New York, has been named as the new chairman of the Convention Center Operating Corporation.

-Matthew Schuerman

Real-estate developer Larry Silverstein has laid the groundwork for a 53-story residential tower at  read more »

Real-estate developer Larry Silverstein has laid the groundwork for a 53-story residential tower at  read more »

12-3: Sabra unveils sculpture of Mayor Michael Bloomberg made of hummus at Kosherfest; Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Booth 525, 655 W. 34th St.  read more »

In the Jets' first-ever television ad for the team's planned stadium, to be built atop the West Side  read more »

Wednesday 31st Take out your boob (the one you married) and lug him to Battery Park to watch Janet  read more »

The Dolan family, the dynasty that owns Cablevision and Madison Square Garden, has hired a small arm  read more »

On Feb.  read more »

About two weeks before Christmas, state officials dropped a present down Charles Dolan's chimney at  read more »

Painting the Town Green:Farmers Market Comes to U.W.S.In a decisive move, Community Board 7 solidifi  read more »

Wednesday 1st Fizzzz … Welcome to 2003, suckas! Still waiting for 2002 to kick in, ain't ya?  read more »

The centerpiece of the Bloomberg administration's bid to bring the Olympics to New York in 2012-a st  read more »

On the evening of Sept.  read more »

It was just a little bit nippy out on Saturday, April 10.  read more »