Javits Has the Blues Again

New York is writing another chapter in one of the most on-again, off-again convention center expansion sagas in the history of the tradeshow business.

Once again, politics are interfering in the effort to finally start the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center of New York before it falls irrevocably behind its competitors.

A recent New York Times article detailed a brewing clash between the newly elected governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Spitzer is said to be reviewing the Javits expansion with the intention to release his assessment in early April, possibly calling for a redesign. Bloomberg supports going forward with the current plan.

The city and state are contributing $350 million each for the expansion, and more than $500 million is coming from the hotel industry.

In October, crews demolished the Yale Building, just north of the Javits Center, in preparation for the future expansion, according to Christopher Heywood, spokesman for NYC & Co., the city's convention and visitors bureau.

On March 12, according to the New York Times article, Spitzer, Bloomberg and U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, who is also a critic of the current plan, met to discuss the expansion. Neither the governor's nor mayor's office released details of the meeting.

Among those it described as openly critical of the expansion, the article cited current Javits Convention Center clients Reed Exhibitions, George Little Management and The New York Intl. Auto Show (its largest combined trade and consumer show), as well as general contractor Freeman.

Industry sources reached by Tradeshow Week confirmed they had concerns about the current plan, and voiced cautious support for Spitzer's review.

Nick Crispe, spokesman for the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Assn., the auto show's owner, said his organization had been talking with the governor's office.

"What we are doing is just giving all the instruction that we need as the biggest show in New York, and then it's up to the powers that be," he said. "We really just want to have the best convention center for the needs of the city."

The auto show, set to run April 6–15, draws crowds upwards of 1 million, and Crispe said it needed more space.

Industry observers have criticized the current plan for having inflated costs and an overall lack of exhibition and meeting space. It started out with a budget of $1.4 billion; it has ballooned to $1.8 billion.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the plan, however, has been its inability to get off the ground.

Ken McAvoy, senior vice president of operations for Reed Exhibitions, also one of the Javits' biggest clients, did not comment on whether or not the company was consulted for the governor's review, but said, "We have always been in support of expanding the Javits Center and would, of course, want to see it expanded sooner rather than later."

When it opened in 1986, Javits was the fourth-largest convention center in the country with 814,400 square feet of exhibit space, but now it's smaller than centers in much less populated cities, such as Louisville, Ky.

Begun 10 years ago, the project was approved by state legislators in 2004, but still hasn't moved past the demolition stage. Officials have pushed the completion date back to 2010.

Other problems have plagued the project:

• The location of a new 1,500-room headquarters hotel was switched from property that needed to be purchased at 11th Avenue and 42nd Street, to a site on a state-owned park across 11th, between 35th and 36th streets.
• Instead of a three-level marshaling yard on the south side of the center between 33rd and 34th streets, the project now calls for a six-level marshaling yard on the north side between 39th and 40th streets.

Robert Boyle, longtime chairman of the New York Convention Center Operating Corp., was ousted after a difference of opinion on both of these plans with Charles Gargano, chairman and commissioner of Empire State Development, which oversees the project.

"We continue to work with Empire State Development to ensure the expansion results reflect the needs of the customers," McAvoy said. "We applaud Gov. Spitzer and EPSD on the recent interest in expanding Javits in a manner that works for all parties."

Reed has a number of shows at Javits including Interphex, International Vision Expo East and BookExpo America — all of which are ranked in the 2006 Tradeshow Week 200 — and McAvoy has a definite idea of what the Javits needs.

"We would like to see more meeting space and exhibition space conducive to satisfying our customers, including ease of move-in and move-out, limiting the number of columns in exhibition space, et cetera", McAvoy said. "Our key objective is to lower the overall cost of exhibiting for our customers. Whether it is New York, Orlando, Atlanta, Las Vegas, our primary objective is the customer. An efficient building to operate in goes a long way toward those efforts."

Jeff Little, president and COO of GLM, referred all inquiries to John O'Connell, CEO of Freeman, who was unavailable to comment before press time. Both were quoted in the New York Times piece as saying the current plan was "disappointing" and "unproductive."

Representatives of Bloomberg and Schumer did not return calls to TSW.

NYC and Co. didn't jump into the fray with specific criticism of the current plan but, Heywood said, "We support an expanded, state-of-the-art convention facility, mindful of the reality of budget constraints and schedule issues. We've been a leading advocate of this, because for each day that we don't have an expanded Javits Center, we lose $1 million in travel and tourism dollars."