Javits may go from ’mausoleum’ to $1.78 billion pride of West Side
Tuesday, January 24, 2006 | New York Daily News | Topic: Economic Development
The Javits center would be transformed into a bigger and bolder showcase - with a treelined concourse and colonnade under a dramatic overhang - according to a $1.7 billion master plan unveiled yesterday.
Bloomberg Still Pushing for West Side Development
Monday, February 06, 2006 | Other | Topic: Economic Development
The mayor’s newest budget plan, unveiled last week, retains the unusual financing plan, previously approved by the City Council, for extending the No. 7 train line from Times Square to a new terminus at West 34th Street and Eleventh Avenue and making other improvements.
The Javits Center Makes it First Steps Towards an Overhaul
Thursday, April 06, 2006 | Other | Topic: General
The New York Convention Center Development Corp. and the Empire State Development Corp. have agreed to a project outline for the remodeling of the Jacob Javits Center. The plan will double the size of the center, include a Convention Center Headquarters Hotel, and make room for new park space at 11th Avenue between 39th and 40th streets.
Pataki to Push for West Side Projects
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 | New York Sun | Topic: General
Two projects on the West Side of Manhattan - the conversion of the Farley post office to Moynihan Station and the expansion of the Javits Convention Center - are being pushed by Governor Pataki in his final months in office.
Empire State Development OK’s Plans for Javits
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 | Crain’s New York Business | Topic: Economic Development
The Empire State Development Corporation gave its okay for phase one of the convention center’s $1.7 billion expansion plan, which includes a park area at 11th Avenue between 39th and 40th streets and a 100-foot high, multi-block, glass-enclosed entry and concourse.
Round Two: Bloomberg and West Side Development
Thursday, July 27, 2006 | New York Times | Topic: Politics & Government
State officials approved a $1.7 billion expansion of the Javits Center, meaning that construction is likely to begin this year. Along with MTA’s negotiation with the City about selling the West Yards, the Bloomberg administration is closer to realizing an alternative development plan for the Far West Side.
Mayor: Javits Center To Be Larger
Tuesday, August 08, 2006 | New York Sun | Topic: General
Mayor Bloomberg is advocating for a larger expansion of the Javits convention center, but some state officials are wondering who would cover the extra cost, estimated at $600 million.
State Leaders to Consider Javits Center Expansion
Friday, March 09, 2007 | Crain’s New York Business | Topic: Politics & Government
Governor Spitzer is meeting on Monday with Senator Charles Schumer, Mayor Bloomberg, and Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff about plans to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Most agree that the convention center is entirely too small and expensive for the city and want an increase in holding capacity from 760,000 square feet to 1.1 million square feet. The governor disagrees with the current plan to expand the center in two phases at a cost of nearly $1.8 billion, an amount the Empire State Development Corporation says is, "extraordinarily expensive." Governor Spitzer’s fresh look at the expansion plans including listening to union and hotel executives and experts who think that adding vertical space is less desirable than horizontal space, the typical design of convention centers.
Governor, Mayor, and Senator Meet on Javits Center Expansion
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 | New York Post | Topic: Politics & Government
Governor Spitzer met with Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Schumer to discuss expansion plans for the Javits Convention Center. The governor went into the meeting with the hope of discussing ways in which the plans could expand exhibition space without the expensive cost of $1.8 billion. Existing proposals call for adding 300,000 square feet to the existing 760,000 square feet. The Empire State Development Corporation, which has previously called the plan "extraordinarily expensive," will finish a review of the expansion by early April. The governor did not divulge his ideas about the center.
Details Emerge from Meeting on Javits Center Expansion
Wednesday, March 14, 2007 | New York Times | Topic: Politics & Government
During a meeting on Monday of Senator Schumer, Governor Spitzer, and Mayor Bloomberg over the expansion plans for the Javits Convention Center, Governor Spitzer made clear that he is not fully in accord with the city’s existing $1.8 billion plan that would extend the center to the north by two blocks as well as add a new floor for a ballroom/meeting and exhibition space. In addition, the city’s insistence on moving a truck marshalling yard on Javits’ south end to a new garage between 39th and 40th Streets is troublesome to the governor’s administration. Spitzer would like to use the block on 11th Avenue between 33rd and 34th streets for screening, sell development rights to the old marshalling yard for residential and commercial towers, and expand meeting space by destroying the old Quill garage at 11th Avenue and 41st Street. The mayor counters that the Spitzer proposal will only add costs and delay construction for close to 6 years on a project that is vital to the development of the West Side. The governor believes that the current plan is too "vertical" for a convention center and adds too little extra space for its price tag.
Spitzer Pushes for $3.2 Billion Javits Convention Center Expansion
Thursday, September 27, 2007 | New York Times | Topic: Politics & Government
The newly proposed $3.2 billion expansion plan for the Javits Convention Center will create an additional 300,000 square feet for ballroom space, exhibition space, and meeting room space. Governor Eliot Spitzer’s new proposal is $1.4 billion more than the design originally set out by his predecessor George Pataki. Some key leaders in the hotel and convention center industry worry about possible cost increases because of a more expensive plan. Spitzer will have to scale the project back if additional funding cannot be generated.
Governor Moves Closer to Costlier Javits Plan
Thursday, September 27, 2007 | New York Times | Topic: Politics & Government
After nine months of study, the Spitzer administration has told hotel industry executives that it is leaning toward an expansion plan for the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center that resembles a proposal made by the Pataki administration but would cost $1.4 billion more. Governor Spitzer raised expectations in January when he asked for 90 days to develop a better expansion plan. During a speech in April, Mr. Spitzer said he wanted a "thoroughbred" of a convention center, dismissing the plan devised by the Pataki administration and Mayor Michael Bloomberg as an elephant or a mouse.
Powerful Voice in Javits Talks May Push To Scrap Pataki Plan
Monday, November 5th, 2007 | New York Sun| Topic: Economical Development
In plotting the long-awaited expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the Spitzer administration is increasingly finding itself torn between the conflicting interests of the city, the hotel industry, and users of the facility amid frustration over the costs.
The Spitzer administration, which inherited an approved and largely funded plan from the Pataki administration, has said the plans are over budget and poorly designed. After a re-examination, the state has put the actual cost of the Pataki administration’s plan at about $3.1 billion. State officials say anything larger or even comparable in size would cost at least the same. Now, almost a year into the re-examination, any mention of a facility expansion emits groans of frustration from government and industry officials involved with the planning.
Alternatively, in an approach that would likely irk the hotel industry and the city, the state could proceed with a $400 million to $500 million basic renovation that would fix the leaky roof and the air-conditioning system, leaving the structure of the facility mostly unchanged.
Manhattan: Expansion of No. 7 Subway Line
Tuesday, December 04, 2007 | New York Times | Topic: Politics & Government
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. Eliot Spitzer spoke yesterday at a ceremony in the Times Square subway station to mark the start of work on a westward extension of the No. 7 subway line. The extension is intended to spur development on the west edge of Midtown, using what Mr. Bloomberg called "the galvanizing power of the subway." The 7 train now runs from Flushing, Queens, to Times Square. The extension will take the line west to 11th Avenue, then south to 34th Street, where a station will be built at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. At the ceremony, Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff defended a decision not to build a station at 41st Street and 10th Avenue, saying that development had already been progressing in that area without the impetus of the new subway. The project is due to be completed in 2013.
Grand Expansion Plans for Javits Look to Have Shrunk Significantly
Thursday, December 20th, 2007 | New York Sun| Topic: Economic Development
State officials are expected to testify today that the once-grand plans to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center are going to amount to little more than a renovation. The end of the expansion plans is likely to raise questions about whether the city and state should build a new convention center outside Manhattan, or abandon the fierce competition between cities to attract top convention shows.
Initially, the cost of the modest expansion plan was estimated at $1.8 billion, but recent estimates had soared to more than $3 billion. The end of the proposed expansion will also presumably end a $600 million "phase two" expansion proposed by Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Schumer in August 2006.
Javits Expansion Turns Into Renovation
Friday, December 21st, 2007 | New York Public Radio | Topic: Economic Development
The proposal to expand the Javits Convention Center has to be scaled back by 75%. That’s according to state economic development officials who blame former Governor Pataki for hiding costs.
The down-state head of the Empire State Development Corporation, Patrick Foye, testified at an Assembly hearing that repairs and renovations at Javits are far more expensive than expected - eating up half of the project’s $1.7 billion budget. Mayor Bloomberg later blasted state lawmakers for blocking his plan to build a stadium and convention center on the west side, saying they blew an opportunity to get a brand-new facility.
City Urged to Restore Stop on Extension of No. 7 Train
Friday, December 21st, 2007 | New York Times| Topic: Economic Development
Two years after the Far West Side was rezoned for large-scale development, a growing number of elected officials, environmentalists and community groups are questioning the city’s and state’s plans for the area.
The city has set aside $2.1 billion for the extension of the No. 7 line from Times Square to the Javits Convention Center and the West Side railyards, the rights to which the MTA plans to auction off for high-rise residential and commercial development. But in an effort to stay within the budget, the city recently eliminated one of two stops along the 1.1-mile extension from the current tunneling contract.
Plan to Expand Javits Center Revised Less Ambitiously
Wednesday, Septemberer 3rd, 2008 | New York Times| Topic: Economic Development
It lives.
The long-awaited expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center appeared to die last year, after state officials said that delays and cost overruns had rendered the ambitious original project untenable. In June, the Paterson administration also scrapped plans for a convention center hotel across 11th Avenue from the existing Javits Center.
But last month, state officials began soliciting bids for a construction manager to oversee a scaled-back, $1 billion effort to renovate the leaky black-glass Javits Center, which sits between 34th and 38th Streets, and add a truck garage and a small amount of exhibition space. Most of the money — $700 million — will be spent on replacing the roof, the air-conditioning system and the glass face of the building. The remaining $300 million will be for additional space.
The work is supposed to start in June 2009 and finish in November 2012, without any interruption of trade shows at the Javits Center. But as with the last proposal, there are no guarantees. “We’re really at the very beginning of the planning stages,” Ms. Lampen added.
In Another Shift, State Wants to Expand Javits to 40th Street
Sunday, November 14th, 2008 | New York Observer| Topic: General
The never-ending saga that is the Javits Center expansion planning process has taken another turn, as state officials now want to extend the convention center northward two blocks to West 40th Street.
At a state board meeting today with an unusual amount of open disagreement, Empire State Development Corporation officials unveiled a set of preliminary plans for an expansion and major renovation of the 22-year-old facility at an estimated cost of $1.8 billion, $200 million more than is currently budgeted for an earlier plan.
Javits Center Renovation Finally Gets Go-Ahead
Thursday, June 2nd, 2009 | Empire State News | Topic: General
The Public Authority Control Board signed off on a renovation nd expansion project that will begin immediately. The PACB approved the General Project Plan for the Javits Convention Center on the west side of Manhattan. The $463 million project will create some 9,000 direct and indirect construction and construction-related jobs.
“The long-awaited Javits Center renovation and expansion project is an important step toward addressing the demand for modern convention space”, said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The project is scaled down a bit from the original proposal to add 500,000 square feet to the current 790,000 feet of exhibit space. The new project will add about 100,000 square feet of new space.
The Neverending Story Arrives at A New Beginning
Thursday, Febuary 26h, 2009 | Reuters | Topic: Entertainment
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "The NeverEnding Story" might keep going.
Warner Bros. and a pair of top-tier production companies are in the early stages of a reboot of the 1984 children's fantasy classic. The Kennedy/Marshall Co., whose credits include "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," and Leonard DiCaprio's Appian Way are in discussions with Warners about reviving the 25-year-old franchise. The studio recently acquired rights to the property, clearing the way for a potential remake.
The new movie will put a modern spin on the material by examining the more nuanced details of the book that were glossed over in the first feature. Those familiar with the project emphasize that it is in its early stages and that writers have not been hired.
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