Finally, Big Apple to Expand

For more than a decade, show managers with maxed-out tradeshows in New York City have been promised the sun, moon and stars when it came to expanding the Jacob K. Javits Center of New York and the city-owned Piers 92 and 94 in the West 50s.

Now, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. may have finally answered their prayers with the planned $100 million expansion of Pier 94, also know as The UnConvention Center, which will add 215,000 square feet of exhibit space to the existing 140,000 sq. ft. Next door, The Show Piers on the Hudson at the New York City Passenger Terminal have an additional 210,000 sq. ft.

MMPI already owns and manages 10 million sq. ft. of space in numerous U.S. cities. In February, it will take over management of the piers from ENK Intl., according to Chris Kennedy, MMPI's president.

He added that MMPI won the management contract because the expansion plans the company presented to the city were tradeshow-driven. "ENK had a lot of catering and special events," Kennedy said. "The economic impact of tradeshows won out."

Calls to ENK, the piers' manager since 1994, were not returned.

Dorothy Belshaw, senior vice president of George Little Management, a dmg world media company, and executive director of the New York Intl. Gift Fair, said of the expansion, "It's fabulous news."

Though, she added, until she actually saw the expansion plans she was "cautiously optimistic."

According to Belshaw, the gift show has winter and summer editions that are filled to the brim at both the Javits Center and the piers. And, she added, there's a 20-year waiting list with thousands of manufacturers chomping at the bit to get into one of the facilities.

The winter show is ranked No. 27 on the 2008 Tradeshow Week 200 and in 2007, it had 608,879 net sq. ft. of exhibit space spread across not only the Javits Center and Show Piers, but also the Metropolitan Pavilion New York. The summer show, ranked No. 29 on the same list, spanned 595,816 net sq. ft., again in all three facilities.

"Any additional space at any New York venue is a good thing for the gift fair and any other large show," Belshaw said.

Joseph Moore, president and CEO of the Fashion Footwear Assn. of New York, has two shoe events at Pier 94. He too was skeptical of the expansion plans after numerous false starts. "We'll believe it when we see it because we've experienced it before," Moore added.

The skepticism is understandable.

The possibility of more space at the piers has been tracked since the 2000 edition of TSW's Major Exhibit Hall Directory under the Expansions in Preliminary Stages column and not budged. Not to mention, in the case of the gift fair, it has had to put up with the on-again, off-again fiasco involving the Javits Center's expansion plans as well.

But, according to Kennedy, as soon as the city-mandated Unified Land Use Review Procedure is completed, which involves zoning laws and will occur throughout 2009, the project will commence and take approximately two years. Shows will not be interrupted during the expansion, he added.

The New York City Economic Development Corp. chose MMPI from a pool of companies, including ENK, that submitted bids for the management contract and expansion at the piers. "This new, expanded facility will enable us to accommodate more of the mid-sized tradeshows that we know want to come to New York City," said NYDEC President Seth W. Pinsky.

Christopher Heywood, spokesman for NYC & Company, the city's convention and visitors bureau, said it has had to turn away shows because the Javits Center's dates were booked with larger events and the piers were too small. "It has been a frustration that there has been lost business," he added.

George Fertitta, the bureau's CEO, added, "We're extremely happy about, and supportive of, this new development, which will enhance the growth opportunities for our city's convention and tourism industry."

The expanded piers also could lure companies that want to launch shows in the mid-sized range.

Britton Jones, president and CEO of Business Journals, has 13 shows at the Javits Center, and though he said there were no plans to move any of the existing shows, he would consider launching a new one at the piers. He pointed out that, with the expansion, the piers will have three halls that could be divided, allowing more than one show to be held at the same time. "At Javits, shows have to be big right out of the box, but smaller or mid-sized shows will be able to take advantage of the piers," Jones added.

Whether or not ENK will keep its more than a dozen events at the piers is unknown, but Kennedy said that MMPI, which has two shows on site — The Armory Show and the Architectural Digest Design Show — hopes to launch even more, as well as encourage new shows to come on board. "Our hope is to attract other show managers to New York as well," he added.