Javits Expansion Delays Blamed on Pataki
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Facing rising anxiety about the slow pace of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center expansion project, the Spitzer administration is placing blame on the Pataki administration for a failure to properly estimate the construction costs.
“We now realize that the proposal we inherited dramatically understated expansion costs,” the downstate chairman of New York’s Empire State Development Corp., Patrick Foye, said at New York Building Congress luncheon. “The work required to come up with a realistic estimate had not been done.”
While he did not offer specific numbers, the admission by Mr. Foye about the severity of the cost overruns was his most frank public statement on the project’s financial challenges to date, and also offered a rare criticism of the prior administration by a man who sought to avoid them.
The Javits Center could play a defining role in Governor Spitzer’s economic development legacy, as the expansion plan was one of the first projects he sought to reexamine and alter. The $1.8 billion plan approved under the Pataki administration drew stinging criticism from many in the convention center industry, and Mr. Spitzer sought to further expand the amount of usable space.
Early in the year, Mr. Foye predicted a new proposal would be unveiled some time in the spring, a date that was subsequently pushed to the summer, and yesterday he offered no timeline on the plan.
The holdup, according to Mr. Foye, has been the realization that there are extraordinary new costs associated with adding new convention space, as even the original plan passed by Mr. Pataki would have been far more expensive than his administration had budgeted. “It is clear that Javits will require more money than has been expected. Our job is to balance the burden on state and city taxpayers, figure out what is achievable from the point of view of the hotel industry,” and consider the needs of the daily users, Mr. Foye said. The plan passed under the Pataki administration, which would have added about 300,000 square feet of convention space, was funded by the city, the state, and a tax on hotel rooms.
Mr. Foye’s predecessor under Mr. Pataki, Charles Gargano, a leading force behind the previous Javits center plan, defended the cost estimates, saying the state hired well-respected firms to evaluate the costs, including Tishman Construction.
“We had a level of confidence that it could be done,” Mr. Gargano said yesterday. “We had hired Tishman to give us a cost estimate — we had also made some modifications to the façade to fit within the budget.”
The slowly moving Javits project has been a significant headache for those in the hotel and construction industries and city officials, many of whom have expressed concern that the delays are themselves causing hundreds of millions of dollars in cost inflation. Officials have estimated that based on the plan passed by the Pataki administration, costs are rising by about $17 million each month.
Mr. Foye, speaking to reporters, acknowledged that rising costs are a concern, though he expressed confidence that the added time to reevaluate is a prudent financial decision.
“We’re focused on the time. But we’re also focused on doing the right thing from my point of view and a financial point of view,” Mr. Foye said.
A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg, John Gallagher said in a statement the “expeditious expansion of Javits is critical to continuing the Mayor’s efforts to boost tourism and create jobs.”
Mr. Foye also confirmed the state was seriously considering a plan for a comprehensive reconstruction of Pennsylvania Station that would “sprinkle” 4.5 million square feet of development rights — the equivalent of more than two Chrysler buildings — in the surrounding area.