Hulking and obsolete, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center may not look like a well-stuffed piggy bank.
But it is. Or could be.
At a recent meeting of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Regional Economic Development Council for New York City, Regional Plan Association President Robert Yaro proposed selling Javits for redevelopment--netting the state $4 billion.
Those proceeds would pay for four new investments that would resolve New York City's long-vexing lack of high-quality convention and meeting space, at no public cost:
Completing the Moynihan Station infrastructure ($1 billion).
Building a state-of-the-art conference, or "congress," center in the western portion of the Farley Post Office, alongside Moynihan Station ($500 million).
Installing the streets, sewers and sidewalks required to develop the multiblock area now occupied by the Javits Center ($500 million).
Building a 1 million-square-foot, world-class trade and consumer show facility at Willets Point or at the former Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens ($1 billion).
An eight-block obstacle to public access to the Hudson River, the Javits Center has never adequately met the needs of New York's important conference, convention and trade show industry. It's too small for most consumer and trade shows and too inaccessible and expensive for conferences.
Selling Javits would allow New York to separate the roles of trade show venue and congress center into facilities designed for these very different functions--as Hong Kong, London, Milan and Tokyo have done. Like those places, New York could sustain a regional network of smaller conference centers (for example, in the business districts of Newark, Stamford, Conn., and Jamaica, Queens, as well as Manhattan), along with a large trade show hall outside the central business district.
For a new million-square-foot convention center, two sites in Queens offer the highway and airport access necessary for trade shows: Willets Point and the former Aqueduct Racetrack.
Willets Point is a 61-acre redevelopment area near La Guardia Airport. Aqueduct is a 200-acre site located five miles from JFK. Genting Group is developing a racino there--keeping the historic racetrack, turning the grandstand into a casino and eventually building a hotel. This past summer, Genting opened the door to developing a convention center on the site.
A congress center--a place for high-end business and professional meetings--requires a relatively modest 300,000 to 500,000 square feet to attract the lucrative meetings that have long bypassed New York for places like Las Vegas, Phoenix and San Diego.
The western half of the Farley Post Office, located on Ninth Avenue between West 31st and West 33rd streets, could accommodate such a center. It has room for 400,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting room space in the nation's most concentrated business, retail, entertainment and tourist district--with direct access to a wide array of transportation options.
Selling the Javits Center is an idea whose time should come. It would help the region take big steps forward, and would show that thinking and building big is indeed still possible in New York.
Hope Cohen is New York director for the Regional Plan Association and associate director of its Center for Urban Innovation.
