Mayor Pushes To Expand Javits Center Even More, at Estimated Cost of $600M

Mayor Bloomberg is now pushing for an even larger expansion of the Javits convention center, but some state officials are wondering who would cover the extra cost, estimated at $600 million.Mr. Bloomberg outlined a “phase two” expansion plan that would add roughly 25% more exhibition space, and could be completed together with “phase one” expansion in 2010.“Phase one is a good start,” Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday. “More needs to be done to give New York the world class facility it needs.”The city pledged to pay one-third of the costs of a phase two expansion, or about $200 million, and indicated that the state could also foot some of the bill. No state officials attended yesterday’s announcement, but Senator Schumer, who was present, said the federal government and the hotel industry could provide additional funding.The mayor’s announcement yesterday came as a surprise to some state officials, who have steered the expansions plans through the approval process and endured criticism from some civic groups and politicians, who have repeatedly called the plan ill-conceived. The city has always been but a supporter of what is considered to be a state project.Governor Pataki was at an event in Washington yesterday. A spokeswoman for the governor, Joanna Rose, said in a statement that Mr. Pataki “has always envisioned a phase two and is pleased that the Mayor and Senator support the Governor’s further proposed expansion and will be reviewing all avenues of funding.”The phase two proposal would give the center a total of 1.4 million square feet of exhibition space. The plan also would redesign the convention center’s fortress-like façade that faces 12th Avenue to improve the colossal building’s relationship to Hudson River Park, according to Mr. Bloomberg.Two state officials familiar with the Javits plans said the $600 million cost estimate for phase two could be too low. In January, the estimate for the phase one expansion increased to $1.7 billion from $1.4 billion.Mr. Schumer was a critic of the phase one expansion plan, calling it too small and too expensive, but yesterday he touted the mayor’s phase two proposal as a way to mitigate those problems.“I thought we should have done a bigger, better job with phase one,” Mr. Schumer said. “Phase two is a much better convention center.”Last month, the Public Authorities Control Board approved a $1.7 billion phase one expansion. The state board still must approve the state’s financing for that plan, as well as the sale of a city block to the south of the center to be used as a revenue source, according to a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a member of the PACB.The city and state will each contribute $350 million to the phase one expansion, and the state has issued $800 million in bonds, backed by a $1.50 a room hotel tax collected by the Hotel Association of New York City.The president of the Hotel Association, Joseph Spinnato, said his organization supports the biggest expansion possible, but he said the hotel industry would be disinclined to pay for any more of it.“There are no plans to increase the hotel tax at this time,” Mr. Spinnato said.A former chairman of the Javits operating corporation, Robert Boyle, called the proposed phase two expansion, “perfume on a pig.” Mr. Boyle has been an outspoken critic of the expansion plans and was fired by Governor Pataki last year.Mr. Boyle said $600 million was too little for what he characterized as a very complicated construction process. He said the process would most likely require the convention center to shut down.“From an operations standpoint, there is no way to do this and keep it open,” Mr. Boyle said.The director of New York Civic, Henry Stern, an outspoken critic of the Javits expansion, said any further plans should be vetted with a cost benefit analysis.“Isn’t it foolish to have these decisions made by people who will be out of office before they get shovel in the ground?” he asked.A spokeswoman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the front-runner for governor in November’s election, did not respond to inquiries about the expansion.

Mayor Pushes To Expand Javits Center Even More, at Estimated Cost of $600M

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