Javits Center Expansion Details Unveiled

The new design envisions a larger and brighter convention center for Manhattan. Also, the Bronx Terminal Market project wins final approval.

Javits Project to Start in Summer

A new master site plan unveiled earlier this year calls for vastly upping the size of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan in the first of two phases. The design was prepared for the New York Convention Center Development Corp., a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corp. that oversees such complexes.

The design team, consisting of London's Richard Rogers Partnership, Chicago's A. Epstein & Sons International, and New York's FXFowle Architects, has proposed a total increase in meeting and exhibit space to 1.3 million sq. ft. from the center's current 790,000 sq. ft. Adding onto the old center, currently located between 11th and 12th avenues and W. 34th and W. 38th streets, the new venue will expand to W. 40th Street.

The city and state are slated to contribute $350 million each to the $1.7 billion total cost of the first phase.

New features in the design call for building the largest ballroom in New York, a tree-lined concourse, a 100-ft.-tall glass entrance lobby, a new hotel across 11th Avenue between W. 35th and W. 36th streets, a new loading and marshalling facility, and new parkland between W. 39th and W. 40th streets at 11th Avenue.

The plan met initial criticism from U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who called for redesigning Phase I from scratch. In a letter Schumer sent to the state development corporation, he criticized the planned expansion as too small and suggested that the layout prevents further expansion north and south.

A spokeswoman for the development corporation said that Schumer had received "incorrect information" with regard to the scope of the expansion, adding that the corporation's board has deemed the plan's 45 percent increase in exhibition space and 570 percent increase in meeting room space adequate to meet the city's needs.

"It is important to note that nothing being planned for phase 1 precludes expansion to the north or south in phase 2," she added in an e-mail.

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Development Corp., another Empire State Development Corp. subsidiary that directly oversees the complex, will raise the balance of funding for the project, beyond the state and city money, through the sale of bonds backed by a $1.50-per-key surcharge that the hotel industry has tacked onto hotel stays in New York City. It will also apply proceeds from the sale of land on the block between 33rd and 34th streets, which currently houses truck and car parking lots.

The design team is next expected to submit a more detailed general project plan, which must gain approval from the boards of both the state development corporation and its state convention center subsidiary.

After public hearings, the design must also gain the approval of the Public Authorities Control Board, a three-member panel controlled by state officials that must approve state contributions to major development projects. Last year, that panel rejected funding for the proposed football stadium for the New York Jets at Hudson Yards on a plot to the south of the Javits center, killing the project.

Preconstruction on the first phase of the expansion is expected to start later this spring and construction this summer. The phase is scheduled for completion in 2010.

Bronx Market Plan Moves Forward

Designs are nearing completion on the $400 million Gateway Center at Bronx Terminal Market, a new retail center planned for the South Bronx. Construction is expected to start in June on the dilapidated stretch of warehouses, following New York City Council approval of the plans this winter.

Designed by Atlanta's GreenbergFarrow and New York's Brennan Beer Gorman Architects, the 1-million-sq.-ft. project also entails restoration of public access to the Harlem River waterfront, street improvements, and new lighting. Construction is expected to take three years.

BTM Development Partners, an affiliate of the Related Cos. of New York, is developing the center. Related is offering compensation to merchants that would be displaced by the development as well as programs to recruit local labor, both which grew out of negotiations that took place during the City Council's review of the plans.

New Municipal Center for Denville

Design work is under way on an expanded government center in Denville Township, N.J., that will centralize municipal functions under one roof.

The $7.4 million brick and stone building will house municipal offices, council chambers, a court room, police department administrative offices, and a community room. The effort will renovate and expand an existing facility, and result in 28,000 sq. ft. on two floors with offices arranged around a forecourt and garden. KSS Architects of Princeton, N.J., is serving as architect and construction manager on the job.