Javits Center | The New York Observer

Four More Years! But for What? Experts Opine on Economic Development Through '13

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:45:38 -0500

Almost indisputably, the mayoral race this year was a desert of big new ideas for New York City. Be it the lack of a competitive Democratic primary, the billions in budget gaps or the challenger's preference for blanket criticism over policy prescription, the incumbent and-at the time of this writing-presumptive winner, Michael Bloomberg, was never forced to offer much in the way of innovative policy.

This was particularly true in the realm of the physical...

Bloomberg Wants Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:14:00 -0400

Mayor Bloomberg is seeking to grab control of Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park, pushing the Paterson administration aside in an attempt to spur progress on the two projects, both of which would create new real estate development and public parkland. As part of the mayor’s plan, his administration would take money it invested in the Javits Center (the city and state each have committed $300 million for a major expansion that was subsequently scaled...

So Long, Javits Hotel

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 18:09:57 -0400

Plans for a soaring new hotel across from an expanded Javits Center have now gone the way of, well, an expanded Javits Center.

With expansion plans scaled back months ago, the Paterson administration earlier in June refunded the deposits of the three bidders vying to build the Javits Hotel, a tower planned to hold at least 1,200 rooms along 11th Avenue at 35th Street. Plans for the site...

Foreigners to Storm Manhattan This Fall, Gobble Real Estate

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:05:57 -0400

Investors, their pockets bulging with foreign capital, will set down in Manhattan this September to eye local real estate investment opportunities, rub shoulders, and draw American investment overseas.

Cityscape -- the firm that put on a popular Dubai convention last year -- will host the the Cityscape USA exhibition on Sept. 10 and 11 at the Jacob Javits Center.

The firm's press release is refreshingly blunt about the economic context in which the...

Quinn on West Side Rail Yards, Moynihan Station, Javits Center

Tue, 20 May 2008 11:45:10 -0400

The video above, courtesy of The Observer's Azi Paybarah, features City Council Speaker Christine Quinn expounding this morning on major development projects like the Javits Center expansion and renovation; the stalled Moynihan Station plan; and the Related Companies' West Side rail yards plans.

"I really see all three of them as critically important," Ms. Quinn said. Of Related's rail yards plan specifically: "Now, yesterday, we had a terrific step forward... and I look forward...

The Javits Center Saga: No End in Site

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:01:12 -0500

Almost from the moment it was completed in 1986, conventioneers and city and state officials realized the Javits Center was too small to satiate the demand for New York-based trade shows, expositions and conventions, and the facility would need to grow. But in the two decades since, the Javits expansion has turned into a never-ending snafu, as countless barriers—ballooning costs, a failed Olympics bid, dissent from the convention industry—have imperiled any sort of measurable...

A Sunnyside Convention Center? Javits Advocates Say Fuggettaboutit

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 15:00:02 -0500

Two business organization leaders said at an Assembly hearing today that they wanted to see an expanded convention center in midtown Manhattan, shedding some doubt on talk of a long-term plan to build a new convention center in Sunnyside, Queens, or New Jersey.

Both Joseph Spinnato, CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, and Mark Scheinberg, who heads up the New York Auto Show and spoke on behalf of a...

Spitzer on Javits Plans: 'A Difficult Analytic Process'

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 15:39:37 -0500

Last week, while The Observer was on holiday, the state made clear that its once grand plans for expanding the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center have been dramatically scaled back, with the dream of a major expansion all but dead.

The admission by the state’s development czar Patrick Foye, who was speaking at a hearing chaired by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, came after almost a full year of review—one that found the expected costs...

Javits Center Expansion: It May Just Be Renovations

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:00:23 -0500

After floating a number of multibillion-dollar plans to expand the Javits Convention Center, the state’s economic development agency is considering a drastically scaled-down version that would renovate the existing building without creating any more exhibit space, according to individuals briefed on the plan.

Patrick Foye, the downstate chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, is still weeks or months away from a decision on which plan to pursue, according to these individuals, but...

New Yorker Hotel to Get $65 M. Renovation

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:28:18 -0400

In an effort to keep up with the hotel development explosion in the city, The New Yorker Hotel announced today that it will undergo a $65 million renovation.

Located at 481 Eighth Avenue, The New Yorker was the largest hotel in the city when it opened in 1931. The expected renovations include a complete overhaul of furniture, carpets, wallpaper and fixtures as well as a serious clean-up job...

Get BEA Out of New York!

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 12:20:07 -0400

Publishers Weekly has gone poll-crazy in the last few weeks. First, they asked: “April is National Poetry Month. When was the last time you bought a book of poems?” Judging by the results, most of us haven’t purchased any verse since high school. Not so shocking, right? Well, check out their latest survey – an industry poll asking where publishers, writers, editors and whoever else might...

New Javits Head Comes from Freedom Tower

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:30:00 -0400

The Real Estate was wrong about one thing: predicting that Mike Petralia, the president of the Convention Center Development Corporation would be leaving at the end of March. It turns out, he will stay through June--but in an undefined capacity. Starting April 16, Barbara Lampen, assistant director of the Freedom Tower project at the Port Authority, will take over his job. Is that a sign of the caliber of mess that the convention center...

Javits: Now Smaller and Pricier Than Ever!

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:28:21 -0400

Aides to Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff concluded that the current design for the Javits Convention Center expansion would cost between $1.93 billion and $2.2 billion, up from $1.68 billion, according to a March 9 memo obtained by The Real Estate. What's more, the amount of exhibition and meeting space that the expansion would add seems to have shrunk a bit from the plan approved last summer, from 520,000 square feet to 345,000 square feet. The...

Richard Rogers Wins Pritzker

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:41:45 -0400

Brit Richard Rogers, who will design Tower 3 at the World Trade Center site, has won the Pritzker Prize, the top honor in architecture. As The Times notes, Mr. Rogers has been busy as of late in New York, and not just in lower Manhattan: [He] now has four projects under way in the city: an expanded Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on Manhattan's Far West Side; a tower at the World Trade Center site;...

Best. BEA. Ever.

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 11:41:25 -0400

Jon Bon Jovi is "headlining" BEA, which is actually not a big concert but a book industry expo held in the Javits Center. PW Daily reports: The singer will perform, with Amy Grant, at Town Hall on June 2 during BEA. The rockers, who both have forthcoming titles from the Doubleday imprint Flying Dolphin Press, will hit the stage for charity as part of the Saturday Night Benefit, raising money for the Book Industry Foundation. Rock on! -...

Head of Javits Expansion Effort to Leave

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 07:44:36 -0400

Mike Petralia, the state official overseeing the increasingly convoluted Javits Convention Center expansion, is leaving his job by the end of the month, according to sources. Appointed by the Pataki administration less than two years ago, he was not expected to last long once Governor Spitzer took over, especially given the fact that the new Governor is pushing for a new design of the $1.7 billion expansion. Mr. Petralia's boss, Patrick Foye, the co-chairman...

Spitzer: Think Bigger On Javits Center

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 09:51:54 -0500

The Spitzer administration wants to scrap the current $1.8 billion plan to expand the Jacob Javits Convention Center on the far West Side. Crain's reports that Governor Spitzer will meet on Monday with Senator Chuck Schumer, a critic of the current expansion plan (he says it's not big enough), and with Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff, who came up with the plan working with the Pataki administration. Stay tuned. Changes for Javits...

Javits Center Hotel Short-Short List

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 11:58:17 -0500

The short-list of potential developers for the Javits Center hotel was supposed to come out on Monday (PDF), but considering that only three bidders had submitted qualified proposals by the Jan. 12 deadline anyway, the Empire State Development Corporation decided to forgo the formality. Otherwise, however, A.J. Carter, the agency's spokesman, said that the process was still on track to select a winner by March 1. - Matthew...

The Round-Up: Wednesday

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 03:40:49 -0500

Plans for unusual housing complex in South Bronx. [NY Times] Bloomberg to propose cutting property taxes. [NY Times] Mayor names new head of Economic Development Corp. [NY Times] WTC Visitor Center counts 100,000th visitor. [NY Times] Nets ink record name rights deal for Brooklyn arena. [NY Post] Bids arrive for Javits Center hotel. [NY Post] Spitzer blocks rent-regulation changes. [Daily News] Hamptons housing market doing well? [NY Sun] Did we miss any New York City real estate news this morning? Please send...

Get Your Bids In! Developers Crave Subsidies for Javits Hotel

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

Some of the biggest real-estate names, locally and nationally, are drawing up plans for a 70-story hotel across the street from the Javits Center in the West Side’s emerging Hudson Yards district, contemplating such revenue enhancers as luxury condos and retail boutiques to make the building work for them. They’re also trying to figure out how much public subsidy they can get away with asking for. The state officials guiding the $1.7 billion Javits...

In This Week's [em]Observer[/em]...

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:14:32 -0500

AIG Takes Risk in Big Downtown Lease "If 2006 was a year that confirmed downtown's renewed relevance, then what a way to finish. In one of the largest deals of last year, the insurance giant AIG has signed a 250,000-square-foot lease at Financial Square at 32 Old Slip." Go to Commercial Breaks by John Koblin. East Village Cafe Pairs Books with Booze "Like countless locales around the city, the new Rapture Cafe & Books at 200...

Tuesday: Walking on Water in Battery Park, Making Magic in Chinatown

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 04:30:00 -0400

The 'Worth [www.nyc-architecture.com] The overeager minds at the Battery Park City Authority have decided to fill in fifty acres of the Hudson River, making way for affordable housing. After all, why should only the upper classes get real estate on the water? (Crain's premium) Spitzer and Faso have graciously lended their support to plans for a Second Avenue subway, and a LIRR/Grand Central tunnel, and a city-funded No. 7 train expansion to the Javits Center....

The Incredible Growing Javits

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 09:55:01 -0400

Suddenly, Mayor Bloomberg and Sen. Chuck Schumer are pushing for a second, $600 million Javits Center expansion to get underway by the end of the year at the same time the first phase gets going. Bonus prize for those who find details of how they want to pay for it in the press release after the jump. -Matthew Schuerman MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND SENATOR SCHUMER CALL FOR PHASE II EXPANSION OF JACOB K. JAVITS CONVENTION CENTER TO...

Tomorrow's Votes

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:18:36 -0400

In the afternoon, you have the Public Authorities Control Board likely shooing in the Javits Center. The more up-in-the-air vote is in the morning, when Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff would like to see the M.T.A. approve the city's offer of $500 million for development rights associated with the West Side rail yards. Officially, according to a spokeswoman, the M.T.A. will be discussing the 2007 budget. The rail yards bid is not on the agenda...

Thursday: A Mysterious Departure, A Harsh Letter for Larry

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 06:15:00 -0400

The real estate industry can be so fickle: ex-Sunshine Groupie (and ex-Trumper) Jacquelyn Sonenberg joined Stribling Marketing Associates a year ago, and within weeks she had climbed to its pinnacle. But yesterday, after nary a full year there, Ms. Sonenberg has left the building. That's what happens when you help market condos in the Plaza Hotel. (The Real Deal) What happened at the Public Authorities Control Board's big vote on the $1.7 billion Javits Center...

Javits Center Expansion: A Discussion

Fri, 05 May 2006 10:25:52 -0400

This Tuesday, the Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation wil be holding a discussion on the Javits Center, moderated by Charles Bagli, of the New York Times. Participants include Kent Barwick (President, Municipal Art Society), Henry Wollman (Director, Steven L. Newman Institute Baruch College), and David Weprin (Chair, Finance Committee New York City Council). Full release is after the jump. The Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation Presents a discussion: The Javits Center Expansion: Will it...

Responsible Development

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 11:52:00 -0400

Cristyne Nicholas, president of NYC & Company, who once called the Jets stadium proposal "a win-win for the city" is now praising Christine Quinn for her support of part of that original proposal: an expanded Javits Center. "Speaker Christine Quinn is a strong and steady supporter of New York's travel and tourism industry, and a champion for the city's tourism workforce that makes the Big Apple shine," she said in an NYC & Company press...

Paging Albo and Heffernan...

Thu, 30 Mar 2006 11:14:59 -0500

LAURIE: I recently spent the morning at the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show at the Javits Center. It gave me a legitimate excuse to not commute to my office in deepest New Jersey, and secretly I thought I might find some wedding-planning inspiration. Not so much, although I did eat a tasty Broasted chicken wing and spoke for several entertaining moments with the guys manning a grease trap display.
The dark, splattery side...

What Would Lenora Do?

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 05:37:10 -0500

Lord Richard Rogers--the architect who almost lost his job on the Javits Center expansion--is no Lenora Fulani Lenora Fulani. That's one of her allies in the Independence Party, attorney Harry Kresky explained it during a party meeting on Saturday in midtown. According to Kresky, Shelly Silver, the speaker of the New York State Assembly [and] Anthony Weiner, a congressman who ran for mayor, both Jews by the way, essentially said that unless this architect recanted,...

Conventioneering

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 11:19:58 -0500

State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky poked holes in the plan for the Javits Convention Center expansion Thursday morning—and afternoon. A lot of them were awfully small holes, but Brodsky—who is running for state attorney general, remember--did get the staff of the Convention Center Development Corporation to admit that they might have to do a supplemental environmental impact statement because the plan has changed since the one for Hudson Yards was completed. No one would specify...

Anthill Dies of Bee Stings

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 11:59:07 -0500

The new Javits Center. The Javits Center expansion seems likely not to be "dazzling," according to Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff. It's not that the plan isn't great; it's just that, like the original (which might have resembled the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris but ... didn't), politics inevitably gets in the way of good design: Embarrassed by the rejection of a Jets stadium for the West Side and the endless squabbling about the design...

Witkoff, Moinian Spar In Javits Hotel Battle

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Robert Boyle, the chairman of the operating corporation that runs the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, was the last of the true believers, holding tenaciously to the idea that 42nd Street deserved a hotel at its western end. When, during the inconspicuous week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, Governor George Pataki unceremoniously replaced Mr. Boyle with someone else, the dream of connecting drab conventioneers to the glamour of Theater Row apparently disappeared forever. ...

In Today's Observer

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 17:10:00 -0500

Where will Johnny Damon end up living? Our bet is on a big, brassy condo building near the FDR. Deck-shuffling at the Javits Center has ignited a battle between Moinian and Witkoff to build the convention hall's hotel. Manhattan real estate is expensive! That's about all anyone can agree upon after reading the fourth-quarter reports from 2005. Plus: Otto Preminger's old townhouse is on sale again; and the man who brought you Who Wants to Be...

Bye, Bye Boyle

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 12:41:00 -0500

Governor Pataki replaced Robert Boyle as chairman of the corporation overseeing the Javits Convention Center Friday. Boyle has disagreed with Charles Gargano, a top Pataki economic development aide, about the design for the $1.4 billion expansion of the center, located in the far West 30’s. Back in 1997, Pataki had high praise for the man: “Bob Boyle transformed the Javits Center from a mob-infested facility burdened by high costs and poor service into one of...

Larry's Revenge: Silverstein Digs A Hole At Javits

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 19:00:00 -0500

Over the past six months, Mr. Silverstein’s company has been doing remediation work for what his spokesman says will be a residential tower, with no hotel rooms—the sequel to River Place I, a...

Larry’s Revenge: Silverstein Digs A Hole At Javits

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 19:00:00 -0500

Real-estate developer Larry Silverstein has laid the groundwork for a 53-story residential tower at 42nd Street and 11th Avenue—right on the spot where a $1.4 billion plan by the state to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center calls for a hotel. Over the past six months, Mr. Silverstein’s company has been doing remediation work for what his spokesman says will be a residential tower, with no hotel rooms—the sequel to River Place I,...

From the Daybook

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 14:26:13 -0500

12-3: Sabra unveils sculpture of Mayor Michael Bloomberg made of hummus at Kosherfest; Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, Booth 525, 655 W. 34th...

New Gridiron Has Hidden Costs

Sun, 21 Nov 2004 19:00:00 -0500

In the Jets' first-ever television ad for the team's planned stadium, to be built atop the West Side rail yards, the narrator says in a dreamy tone: "Neglected industrial areas around the rail pit will be transformed into new waterfront parkland."

It sounded good: Who could be against turning derelict rail yards into parks? Indeed, as the Jets refined their pitch after that first ad in early June, they began to talk more and more...

Eight Day Week

Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:00:00 -0400

Wednesday 31st

Take out your boob (the one you married) and lug him to Battery Park to watch Janet Jackson try to steal attention back from bosom buddy Courtney Love …. It will be televised on Good Morning America , which says there will be a five-second delay "for obvious reasons," though the real question is why they haven't imposed a five-second delay on Diane Sawyer to protect viewers from being flashed by...

Our Beloved Alfonse Is Back, Lobbying To Block Stadium

Sun, 04 Apr 2004 20:00:00 -0400

The Dolan family, the dynasty that owns Cablevision and Madison Square Garden, has hired a small army of lobbyists, including former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, to fight the new West Side stadium for the Jets, which could compete with the Garden for big-draw events, The Observer has learned.

In recent weeks, the proposed stadium-which is part of a larger joint city and state plan to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center-appeared to have won the...

Touchdown Mike: Mayors game plan on Jets New Home

Sun, 29 Feb 2004 19:00:00 -0500

On Feb. 25, a group of West Side Jets fans are scheduled to fire up hot dogs and grills outside a West Side theater to protest the end of tailgating as they know it.

City officials are due at the theater to present their redevelopment plan for the Hudson Yards district, the centerpiece of which is a new stadium for the New York Jets. Many fans are worried that the quintessential tradition ofraucous Meadowlands tailgates...

Jets Owners Say: If We Get Stadium, No Rock Concerts

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 -0500

About two weeks before Christmas, state officials dropped a present down Charles Dolan's chimney at Madison Square Garden. For months, the 77-year-old Cablevision chairman had been worried that the financially troubled Garden, which he owns, might have to compete with the proposed West Side Jets stadium for arena events like concerts, boxing matches and tennis tournaments. But in mid-December, state officials got the Jets, the prime builders of the proposed West Side stadium, to...

Community Boards

Sun, 15 Jun 2003 20:00:00 -0400

Painting the Town Green:

Farmers Market Comes to U.W.S.In a decisive move, Community Board 7 solidified its position that, in fact, a taste of honey is better than none at all. Reservations about pedestrian and vehicular congestion notwithstanding, the board, at its June 3 meeting, gave the thumbs-up for a new greenmarket on the Upper West Side. Thanks to the board's 27-to-6 approval, and a green light from the Department of Transportation and the Parks...

The Eight-Day Week

Sun, 05 Jan 2003 19:00:00 -0500

Wednesday 1st

Fizzzz … Welcome to 2003, suckas! Still waiting for 2002 to kick in, ain't ya? Stay in bed for a few more days; trust us, Klonopin is your friend. Meanwhile, can anyone tell us why New York City is hosting a boat show ? Who do you know in N.Y.C. who owns a boat-much less a car? Anyhoo , despite the incredible sinking economy, show manager Michael Duffy believes boats still float...

Jets Punt on 2012 Plan

Sun, 30 Jun 2002 20:00:00 -0400

The centerpiece of the Bloomberg administration's bid to bring the Olympics to New York in 2012-a stadium and International Broadcast Center on the West Side-appears to be in trouble. With the U.S. Olympic Committee due in town on June 30 to evaluate the city's bid, the administration's partners in developing the site are distancing themselves from the plan.

The New York Jets, whose plan for a football stadium on the West Side has been closely...

Rudy Wants a Stadium Built on West Side--And So Do the Jets

Sun, 03 Dec 2000 19:00:00 -0500

On the evening of Sept. 20, New York Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson IV brought his newest executive, Jay Cross, to Gracie Mansion for an informal get-together with National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. The meeting was meant to be a quiet preliminary talk about Mr. Johnson's plans to build a new Jets stadium on the West Side. But word of the meeting leaked to the press, setting off...

The Suede Jacket Guys

Sun, 18 Apr 1999 20:00:00 -0400

It was just a little bit nippy out on Saturday, April 10. Sunny and bright–very much a lovely spring day. It was one of those days when a certain kind of man will put on a suede jacket and walk around town feeling like a million bucks.

On his way to brunch was Ryder Daniels, a 30-year-old electronics finance services man. He was walking past the Ralph Lauren store on 72nd Street and Madison, with...