Friday, December 21, 2007

Javits is dead

The proposed expansion of the Jacob Javits Convention Center is dead, a state official announced Thursday at a contentious hearing where a deputy mayor got a verbal slapdown.

The much-hyped renovation of the West Side convention hall has been scrapped primarily due to the huge - and overlooked - cost of repairing the decrepit building, said Patrick Foye, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp.

"We expected a problem, but effectively what we inherited is a mess," Foye told an Assembly hearing, citing the center's leaky roof and damaged lobby.

"The more we peeled the layers of the onion, the more irritated our eyes became."

The cost of the expansion plan, initially estimated at $1.8 billion, has skyrocketed closer to $5 billion, Foye said.

Repairs to the building alone would cost $850 million, he added, noting that city and state officials are trying to put together a less-ambitious proposal.


State kills Javits hall expansion

JAVITS PLAN WILL SHRINK

Lack of 41st St. Station Is Focus of No. 7 Criticism

Photo from NY Post

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know where to begin hearing the news about the Javits center other than hearing the somber ringing death keel sounding throughout NYC. We have spent decades fixing Javits internally, it's mortar and of the expansion plans. This is the most corrupt place on earth including everyone trying to direct it's destiny - no small wonder it's dead.

The next step is a give-away - we finally reached this point. The Pols will sell it's interest for $1 to a major developer whom will raze it, expand it, a rebuild a convention center with the most highest and dense development ever - sounds like a Trump like deal - a free waterfront property give away. Once razed, it will sit there like ground zero (Sacred Shame)mired like mud and NYC will sink like the Titanic without a convention center to attract folks to new ideas or provide a showcase to commerce.
Thanks Gov. Spitzer and Mr. Bloomberg. All of our political capital has been spent on the Olmpics when it should have been focused on the convention center itself. We lose big time!

verdi said...

In the late 1980s
I took a "shape up" day job at the Javits Center
to make some quick extra money.

The United Expo Company
hired me and a friend at their union hall
(yawn... 6:00 AM) in Long Island City.

When we showed up to report for work
somewhere in the basement level
of the Javits Center....
I noticed a lot of water leaks.

One of the guys told me
that's because the building sinks.....
I think he said it was
about an inch every two years.

I mean....doesn't it sit on landfill ?
Maybe that's why they've chosen not to expand it.

Anyway....
we each walked away earning $250
apiece for the day.....not bad!

georgetheatheist said...

Anonymous said: "NYC will sink like the Titanic without a convention center to attract folks to new ideas or provide a showcase to commerce."

Posit no trepidation. The Covention Center at Willets Point is slated for future crapification!

Anonymous said...

Posit no trepidation. The Covention Center at Willets Point is slated for future crapification!

Oh George, you are most wisest atheist. Bravo.