Jacob K. Javits Convention Center

Renowned architect Richard Rogers has left the architectural team to renovate and expand the Javits Center, a move that comes four months after the state finalized a decision against any large scale expansion, an Empire State Development Corporation spokesman confirmed.

The Pritzker Prize-winning Mr. Rogers was brought on for the project by Pataki development chief Charles Gargano in part as a means to draw public support for the project. Mr. Rogers designed, among other projects, Paris’ Centre Pompidou museum with Renzo Piano.  read more »

While much of former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s economic development agenda seems to be on hold or in flux (e.g. Moynihan Station, for one), his once controversial plan for the Javits Convention Center has outlived his tenure.

The Paterson administration is trekking down the path of a renovation and modest expansion for Javits, with plans for an additional 50,000 square feet of exposition space and a truck storage area. The budget, at least as of a few weeks ago, was $1.3 billion for the whole ordeal, $300 million or so less than the amount approved for a much larger expansion and renovation under the Pataki administration (which the Spitzer folks later found to have a true cost of more than $3 billion).  read more »

The announcement by the state on Thursday that it would put on hold its intent to sell a block of land north of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center brings the debate over the facility a major step closer to closure, taking off the table the most controversial piece of Governor Spitzer’s plans for the facility.

After the governor announced last month that he would proceed with a renovation (and possibly modest expansion) of Javits, he received a major pushback from the Bloomberg administration, Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Senator Schumer, Assemblymen Richard Brodsky and Richard Gottfried, users of the facility, and just about anyone else connected to Javits, so it seemed.

But now the state, by agreeing to not immediately sell the northern parcel (which was months, if not more than a year, away from occuring due to a needed lengthy environmental review), seems to have placated the Bloomberg administration and Ms. Quinn, at least for now, giving the renovation plan more steam to make it through the Legislature, which would need to sign off on the plan.  read more »

Bogged down with resistance to a plan to renovate the Javits Center and sell adjacent land, Spitzer administration economic development chief Patrick Foye tried to look ahead a few years in an op-ed in today’s Daily News, saying the state should start searching for other sites outside of Manhattan for a convention center.

With a newly renovated Javits, we also can start developing a longer-term vision for the future convention industry within New York City. That's why we have asked our partners in government, industry and labor to join us on a task force to think through what our city's long-term travel and tourism needs are, where a larger, more modern convention center could be built outside of Manhattan and how it can be funded down the road when market conditions make it viable.

Of course, the state has not done a thorough financial review, at least not to the public's knowledge, of the sites that are often mentioned as possible alternative locations, and 20 or so acres of available land, even outside of Manhattan, is not so easy to come by.  read more »

Since the Spitzer administration revealed its plans for a Javits Center expansion/renovation last month, the state has been clear that funding for the governor’s new $300 million downstate affordable-housing initiative, along with funding for two parks, will have to come from the sale of two unused land parcels to the north and the south of the convention center.

Joining the two separate projects, the state seemed to be saying that only with the $900 million or so raised from the Javits land sale could it afford the housing plan. “Want a housing plan? Support the Javits proposal,” the Spitzer administration implied.

The land-sale proposal became an instant lightning rod, drawing fire from most anyone and everyone involved with Javits, particularly over the sale of the northern parcel. Selling it would foreclose the possibility of expansion forever, critics charged. (Mr. Spitzer has said the price will forever be far too great to expand there, so selling the parcels makes sense.)

But it now appears there’s been something of a shift, housing advocates say.  read more »

The Javits Center expansion seems to be a particular point of attention for elected officials these days—Council Speaker Christine Quinn highlighted her opposition to the Spitzer administration’s plan to sell two parcels of land in her State of the City address Tuesday; Senator Schumer has come out strong against it; Assemblyman Richard Brodsky was critical at a hearing Monday; and Mayor Bloomberg has spoken out publicly against the plan on multiple occasions. (Lots more on the imbroglio here).

Now, the state Senate Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, led by Senator John Flanagan, is calling a hearing on the matter, inviting Spitzer administration officials, among others. The hearing is scheduled for Feb. 28 at the Senate’s offices downtown.

The Spitzer administration has emphasized that a significant expansion on the site does not make economic sense, as officials have priced out numerous possible options, finding that an ideal convention center would cost around $5 billion, compared with the $1.68 billion approved in 2006 for expansion.  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg spoke out again today about Governor Spitzer’s plan to sell land adjacent to the Javits Center now that the governor has decided to only modestly expand the facility. The sale would block any chances of a larger expansion further down the road, and Mr. Bloomberg believes such an act would be short-sighted, given that it is motivated by a need to fill a budget gap.

Mr.Spitzer has taken the position that he has made a decision on the Javits expansion and is not looking back. Any large-scale expansion on the site would be far too expensive, he has said, and the sale will help fund needed capital improvements, including building out Governors Island and Hudson River Park.  read more »

Governor Spitzer’s plan for the Javits Center is drawing fire from a whole bunch of angry advocacy groups and officials, and that could spell a whole bunch of trouble for Hudson River Park, Governors Island, and a downstate affordable housing plan. (I wrote about other troubles in Hudson River Park in this week’s print edition.)

The dissent about the Javits plan, and its relationship to the parks and housing program comes not so much from the expensive renovation and modest expansion at the convention center, but rather the plan to sell two parcels on either end of the facility is raising hackles—so much so that a users group plans to meet today in Albany to lobby against it.

Facing a $4.4 billion budget gap and a desire to increase government programs, Mr. Spitzer wants to sell the two parcels for about $900 million, tying the sale to the capital funding of initiatives such as readying Governors Island for development.

Selling the land would preclude a later horizontal expansion on the site, and also move a truck marshalling yard inside the convention center. With the two acts taken together, now criticism seems to be coming from all sides.  read more »

Three days after the MTA acknowledged it would have to scrap the iconic entrance to its Fulton Street Transit Center, Governor Spitzer spoke on the effects of rising construction costs at a New York Building Congress luncheon today at the Mandarin Oriental, warning of challenges ahead.

Much of the rise cannot be controlled, as the acting force is global demand for construction materials, he said, along with the rising costs that come locally from having so much construction.  read more »

More than a year into his term, Governor Spitzer seems to have settled on a plan to modestly expand the Jacob K. Javits Center, bringing toward a close a months-long imbroglio that began with a quixotic desire to better a Pataki-era expansion plan.

The downstate chairman of New York’s Empire State Development Corporation, Patrick Foye, told The Times on Friday that the state would go ahead with a $1.6 billion plan to renovate the existing facility and add a modest 100,000 feet of exhibition and meeting space. The renovations could cost about $800 million, though the plan will fit within the existing $1.8 billion budget approved in 2006.

The Observer broke the news in December of the likelihood of renovations instead of significant expansion.  read more »