Cuomo: Javits Center Expansion Will Begin Sooner Than Expected
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP)-- Gov. Andrew Cuomo has $1 billion set aside to expand Manhattan's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center which opened in 1986.
"It's the busiest convention center in the country right now. But we are not getting the big shows, because we can't fit the big shows. Believe it or not, they've gotten so large," the governor told WCBS 880's Rich Lamb.
Cuomo said the state is accelerating the timelines so that construction on the 1.2 million square foot expansion will begin this fall.
He made the announcement for expansion in early January.
The announcement came four years after Cuomo proposed razing the Javits Center and replacing it with a new convention center in Queens.
Because of its size and lack of facilities the Javits Center loses about 15 major conventions a year and unlike the boat show and the car show where people come for the day and then go home, these are conventions where people stay for days and spend a lot of money.
Cuomo in 2012 called the Javits Center "obsolete and not large enough to be a top-tier competitor in today's marketplace."
"We will have the most aggressive development program in the history of the state of New York," the governor said.
Cuomo said that construction will add 344,000 square feet of meeting and exhibition space, 400,000 square feet of operational space and 479,000 feet for delivery truck parking.
"We're going to expand Javits from 2.1 million square feet by building an additional 1.2 million square feet on Javits, for a total of 3.3 million square feet," Cuomo said. "It's not just about an exhibition hall. They want breakout rooms, and breakout space, and meeting rooms, and that's what Javits needed to construct, and they will."
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