Javits expansion 'dead'
By Staff -- Playthings, 12/21/2007 6:25:00 PM
NEW YORK—The long-planned expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, site of one of the two major U.S. toy industry trade shows, is "dead," according to New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who held a hearing Thursday on West Side development plans.
The project was derailed, according to published reports, by a price tag that has ballooned to nearly $5 billion from its originally projected $1.8 billion. City and state officials are now focusing on renovating and repairing the 21-year-old facility’s existing structure. The cost of those renovations is estimated at upwards of $850 million, according to Patrick Foye, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp.
"We expected a problem, but effectively what we inherited is a mess," Foye told a city Assembly hearing on Dec. 20, when describing the state of the convention center as it currently stands. "The more we peeled the layers of the onion, the more irritated our eyes became."
The Jacob Javits Convention Center is the long-time home of both the American International Toy Fair and the annual Licensing Show.
