Gov. Cuomo's Queens Convention Center Plan Takes Flak From Trade Show Industry

When Gov. Andrew Cuomo indicated his intention to pave the way for Genting International to build a new and larger convention center at its Aqueduct casino facility, lots of people perked up. While everyone understands that there are serious limitations with the Javits Center on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan, the idea that the City would raze the site and open it up for redevelopment in favor of a new convention center in the far reaches of Queens sounded farfetched.

Now comes word that the very trade show industry that would be users of whichever facility exists, actually wants to stay at the Javits Center.

They pointed to the risk that the trade-show industry faces if the plan first proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in January also results in tearing down the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and building a smaller trade show center in Manhattan.

“The jury is out in my mind on this project,” said Carl Weisbrod, a clinical professor of real estate at New York University and a board member of the Convention Center Development Corp., the state-run entity responsible for the on-going renovation of the Javits Center.

“It seems to me,” Mr. Weisbrod said, addressing Mr. Goode, “that your facility will cannibalize a public facility.”

A major fear for the meetings industry is that the Queens project will upend a decades-old system of doing business at Javits, alienating show producers and attendees who may defect to other cities as a result.

“If Javits were torn down and I had a big show in New York, I would consider moving it to another city, such as Philadelphia, before I'd consider Aqueduct,” said Jeff Little, the former president and owner of George Little Management, a major tradeshow producer. Mr. Little recently formed a new company after last year's purchase of GLM by Providence Equity Partners.

Genting also faced critics who say that building a large convention center does not make sense when so many mega centers across the country are struggling to book shows.

Over the last decade there has been an enormous decline of attendees at conventions, said Steven Malanga, senior fellow at Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. What's more, he said that just 27% of the 2.3 million people who attended shows at Javits last year were from out of town.

“The rest were day-trippers,” he said. Genting, he predicted, won't be able to attract large trade shows because the industry is simply not growing.

There are long term trends within the convention industry that work against building a new and larger facility, including the fact that bookings are down and large centers are struggling to find events. That hasn't been an issue with the Javits Center, despite the Center's deficiencies.

Some of those issues are being resolved in a major refurbishment and small expansion project to the north side of the main halls.

The MTA is busy expanding the 7 Line to the Javits Center, which is a major boost for transit connectivity. The Aqueduct site lacks any appreciable transit and that means that convention-goers would have a hard time getting around since there are few other tourist destinations near the Ozone Park location. The Javits Center is a short walk to Times Square and other major landmarks - a key to luring tourists and convention planners. While airport access may be seen as a bonus for a Queens convention center, even that's relatively limited and Genting has thus far not committed to paying for transit connections that would improve transit in the area.

I'd say that Cuomo's plans are likely to stall, especially now that trade show organizations are suggesting that they want to keep the Javits where it is.

Cuomo's Convention Plan Makes Little Sense

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued the annual state of the state address yesterday, and there were several nuggets of gold for Southern Queens. He suggested that Genting International, which operates a racino at Aqueduct Raceway, should operate a new 3.1 million square foot convention center facility.

He further suggested dismantling and redeveloping the West Side where the Javits Center is currently located.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an ambitious plan to raze the Javits Center to make room for a multibillion-dollar “21st century neighborhood” on Manhattan’s West Side, as part of a far-reaching State of the State address delivered Wednesday in Albany.

Cuomo proposed replacing the 1986 I.M. Pei-designed complex with a massive new 3.8 million square foot convention center at the Aqueduct Race Track in Queens — built using $4 billion in private funds.

“Let’s build the largest convention center in the nation. Period,” said the governor, who panned the current 842,000 square-foot hall, which is sandwiched between the Hudson River and other properties, as “not competitive” because of its size.

“We’re not getting the shows here,” he said.

The Javits Center recently underwent an expansion — the addition of a modern, column-free hall called Javits Center North that was completed in 2010. It is also in the midst of a major renovation involving the replacement of the roof, skylights and entranceways, which are set to be completed in 2013.

The complex — which is operated and maintained by the state-controlled New York Convention Center Operating Corporation and built on state-owned land — is also near the terminus of the 7 train extension, which is nearing completion as well.

The Javits Center is currently undergoing a nearly $500 million renovation to upgrade and expand the space, which will top out at 860,000 square feet. That's not enough to woo business from other large convention center spaces, but I question the move to redevelop the Javits Center and move conventioneering to Queens.

For starters, the MTA is busy expanding the 7 Line to provide direct access to the subway at the Javits, and it's a 10 minute walk to Herald Square or 20 minutes to Times Square. If you're attending a convention in Queens, you might have easier access to JFK airport, but that's about it. There isn't the kind of mass transit connectivity, nor is there the kind of attractions and businesses that can cater to such development, even if thousands of hotel rooms and other spaces are developed in Queens. People attending conventions want to be in the heart of the city, and a facility in Aqueduct doesn't quite cut it.

It would be a mixed blessing for Queens, and traffic would be even more of a nightmare in that part of Queens to boot (in part due to the lack of transit options).

What would appear to be a better path would be to engage in a serious redevelopment and expansion of the Javits Center into the Hudson Yards area or even atop the West Side Highway. Such a move would make sense from a capital investment perspective. It would also allow for the construction of a bus depot to handle overflow from the Port Authority Bus Terminal for NJ Transit so as to reduce delays and congestion through the Lincoln Tunnel. That's far more critical than trying to build a brand new facility in Queens where the infrastructure isn't even present to deal with the kind of traffic that such a facility would bring.