Thursday, January 5, 2012
Cuomo wants convention center at Aqueduct
From the NY Times:
One of Manhattan’s most desirable real-estate assets was at the center of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s proposal Wednesday to build the country’s largest convention center at a racetrack-casino in Queens.
A new 3.8-million-square-foot exhibition hall and hotel at the Aqueduct racetrack in Jamaica, Queens, would free up 18 windswept acres owned by the state overlooking the Hudson River in Midtown Manhattan, a site occupied since the 1980s by the much- maligned Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
The land could fetch billions of dollars from developers, say state officials, urban planners and real estate executives. That could plug budget gaps and pay for expensive projects, like expanding Pennsylvania Station.
From the Daily News:
Before Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State address Wednesday highlighted his vision to build the nation’s largest convention center at Aqueduct racetrack in Queens, the plan had already taken a major step forward.
On Tuesday, the Cuomo administration quietly inked a letter of agreement for the project with the operator of the Aqueduct racino, Genting New York, a Cuomo source told the Daily News.
In the letter, the Malaysia-based casino operator pledged to invest $4 billion to build the 3.8 million-square-foot facility, the source said.
Genting already controls 67 acres at the South Ozone Park site. But the source said the state will help make adjacent Port Authority land available for the project, and turn existing mass-transit infrastructure into a “convention center” train.
Not everyone agrees that this is a good idea.
17 comments:
the travel time by car from Manhattan to JFK area is about 1 to 1.5 hours during peak hours (3:30 to 6:30PM).
why would a conventioneer want to tour Jamaica or Ozone Park ?
the sanitation garbage truck stink near Aqueduct will lose every tenant after their first stay at a hotel there.
a Manhattan hotel to 34 st.(Javits Cntr.) by cab or subway ride can not be beat.
the tweeders smell developer dollars ,after screwing the taxpayers.
Perhaps the new Aqueduct convention center can attract the Players Ball.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Players_Ball
It's almost a third world country in the vicinity,waste of money,too far from the "city".
We already have the Javits convention center, which is under-utilized and sits mostly empty. They want to build one more at the Iron Triangle. Now yet one more at Aqueduct? What's the rush to build convention centers that are not going to be used?
Hey Andy boy:
Fix the transportation and sewer infrastructure in Queens first before you take anymore bribes from your friends.
And stop talking and gesturing like your father. We are trying to block him out of our dark memories of his reign.
Location, location, location.
LOL!
Right in the middle of nowhere!
"Great" choice Andy!
OK getting Javits site $$Billions from Developer - Good idea.
Building the replacement in Ozone Park? Are they nuts - who want to go there from out of town?
Build it in Willets Point maybe?? Why can't they sell the Javits Air rights to developers to build over a new underground rebuilt Javits Center on the existing property?
Maybe one of the guv's friend wants a nice fat Aqueduct contract!
That Cuomo pack are just a bunch of crooks!
Ol' Andy boy's got broccoli for brains.
That cabbage head must be in on some share of "the take" regarding builders, contractors and concessioneers at the proposed Aqueduct convention center.
Huh? So the Javits Center would go away? Is he an idiot? Who in the world is going to travel to shit hole south jamaica for a convention? Most folks already feel traveling to the Javits center on 12th avenue is too far. Let me guess-- our taxes will go up to pay for this, and fund union coffers. You know, I'm done with this whole enterprise. Shut this state down, sell it to Trump. Sell it anybody.
Actually the Javits Center is slowly sinking.
I did some "shape-up" work for United Expo there about 25 years ago to grab some quick holiday bucks.
In the basement it was leaking like a pasta strainer.
I asked one of the guys, "Whats up with all the water"?
"The place sinks at about an inch every two years", was his answer".
Apparently, it's been built on some landfill.
I don't want to be around when the metal framing warps and that "greenhouse" starts popping some of its glass panes onto the floor.
Hey Guv Andy...
so why is the #7 line being extended to the Javits Center?
Wanna waste more of out tax money on Aqueduct?
There's got to be mega $$$$$ in it for Andy's campaign chest!
Didn't 'we' just finish putting a couple of hundred million into upgrading Javits?
In the 80's I worked several trade shows at the Coliseum and later one at Javits. It had just opened, and even though it was superior technically, both exhibitors and patrons complained that it was 'out of the way".
Conventions/trades are held in cities like Manhattan because the city helps attract out of town patrons.
Manhattan is a big piece of the appeal -putting it out in some dead bedroom community is dopey and self-defeating.
Aqueduct is close to shipping, trains and planes - Javits is too small, has no room for expansion and the traffic a pain. The current Javitz work is just redoing the glass walls. When I go to out of town conventions, I stay near the convention. The biggest reason I need to drive in Manhattan in the middle of the day is to go to the Javits, and garment district truck loading is the major cause of traffic that delays me. Thanks to your beloved histrionic preservation, Manhattan already is third world.
#14...hire a driver from nyc.if he does not take the West Side Hywy, get out and find a citizen driver ,not an alien from the middle east.
Oh,
it's a Malaysia based casino company.
Has the Democratic party run out of Taiwanese sources to fund their political campaigns?
So now Malaysia will be funding them?
And why not?
Just skim a little off the top of the casino's daily take and funnel it to the Democrats.
Then "Virginia Joe Crowley will see that it gets into the right coffers.
Going to a convention in Ozone Park is as attractive as visiting Haiti for fun in the sun.
THe point is however is that the existing gambling joint there will fund it so ok on that score. If people wish to go there then let them as long as we are not shelling out to build at taxpayer cash.
But keep or do something similar with Javits that incorporates it within new development on the West side to maintain that space in some form that continues to attract business to Manhattan. Maybe have MSG do a swap and partner with a developer to make something super and effiecent in place of Javits.
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