Full Javits Center Expansion Junked

After spending more than $100 million on studies, Gov. Spitzer has canned the Javits Center expansion as originally intended. The Center, which plays host to more than a hundred conventions during the year, including the New York Auto Show, is badly in need of expansion and modifications that would make the space more user-friendly and enable holding larger shows.

"It turns out the initial design had been under-priced by about 100 percent by the time we were done with the numbers, given the escalation in construction costs. We looked at the numbers and came to the very simple conclusion: It doesn't make sense," Spitzer said.

But taxpayers aren't entirely off the hook. The state plans to spend $1.6 billion just to repair and renovate the Javits Center and add a modest 80,000 to 100,000 square feet of space - a far cry from the 300,000 square feet of new space Pataki had wanted.

Spitzer said he wasn't a big fan of the design from the get-go, and had asked his advisers to take a second look to try to improve it. What they found was limited demand for the type of space included in the project and skyrocketing costs to build it.

"When something doesn't make sense, we're not going to go with it. The Javits Center expansion is done. It doesn't make sense. We're not going to do it," he said.

The Javits expansion is the second West Side megaproject to be axed. It had initially been proposed in tandem with the construction of a stadium for the Jets, an idea that was defeated in Albany. But Javits' undoing comes despite widespread political support for it.

Spitzer said that the support came far too late to make the Javits expansion work.

"Had the Javits Center been built when it was initially proposed, had the Javits Center not gotten mired in the all-too-frequent politics of gridlock of New York City and New York state, it might have made sense," Spitzer said.

The cost of repairing Javits will come from the same sources tapped to expand it. The city and state are jointly putting up $700 million, with much of the balance coming from a hotel-room tax imposed in 2005.

So, instead of getting an expansion of the Center's floor space by nearly 50%, we're going to see about a 20% increase (based on 80,000 sf being built) and there's no guarantee that it will get built either if the construction costs continue to rise. Expect to hear about how the state and city have to undertake value engineering to make things work, followed by further reductions in floor plan.