If it ever gets off the ground, the expansion of New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center couldn't be happening at a better time, according to local meeting buyers. Right now, the city regularly turns away some mega conventions that cannot be accommodated, and some hotels are at 90 percent capacity with average room rates soaring past $300 per night.
"Our demand exceeds our supply; that's been the case for a long time," said Timothy McGuinness, executive director of NYC & Co., New York City's convention and visitors bureau.
"The expansion is a breath of fresh air and long overdue. The ability to open up and become a bigger facility will allow more events to come in."
The Javits Center currently contains approximately 760,000 square feet of exhibition space, 30,000 square feet of meeting space and 665,000 square feet of prefunction, support and staging areas. The existing Javits lacks a sufficient amount of prime exhibition space, including an inadequate amount of contiguous space, to attract the largest conventions and trade shows.
According to the office of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the first phase of the two-phase Javits Center expansion was to increase exhibit and meeting room space to more than approximately 1.3 million square feet, adding an estimated $47 million in combined annual tax revenue
(BTN, May 15, 2006).However, according to a recent New York Times report, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is considering an expanded proposal for the Javits Center to add even more exhibition space. That proposal would double its original cost, add an additional 250,000 square feet of exhibit space and renovate the existing building.
Jaclyn Bernstein, president and partner of New York-based independent meetings management firm Empire Force Events, said she hopes that more significant, high-end and larger corporate meetings, events and trade shows are attracted to the expanded convention center.
"The challenge has been the fact that we were only the 18th largest or so in the country," said Bernstein. "Second-tier cities were attracting major conventions and conventioneers. The expansion would mean more business for our city and our profession—beyond just being onsite at the convention center, it would definitely be related to an increase of 'in conjunction with' events," she said.
The project also will include the construction of a convention center headquarters hotel.
"We've also lost so many hotels and rooms to condos and conversions," said Ina Lee Selden, president of New York destination management company Manhattan Passport, "but the hotels that stand to benefit from the expansion are the ones that are across the river in New Jersey. They are uniquely set up to get people across to the convention center and their prices are more reasonable."
Bernstein said a new hotel with a significant amount of rooms would help guests find more reasonable rates.
"The city is very fortunate with its occupancy levels now, and the restaurants are full and attractions are busy, but unfortunately event production and destination management companies like ours are finding New York City losing business to other destinations due to less room availability, and rising hotel rates," said Bernstein.
NYC & Co.'s McGuinness said the five boroughs will see roughly 10,000 to 12,000 new hotel rooms within the next 24 to 36 months, which might lower escalating room rates.
"I don't want to put the cart before the horse, but right now we want to get the Javits Center expansion moving, and it's going in that direction, but we want to see activity in that area," said McGuinness. "The next step would be to dig our heels in about the hotel."
New York City might be eager for this project to begin, but the New York State Convention Center Development Corp., which oversees the expansion, isn't quite sure when it's going to get off the ground.
"We are still in the preliminaries before rolling this project out," according to Errol Cockfield, press secretary of the Convention Center Development Corp. "Our main focus is to look at the number of possible options and create the best plan possible."
In the meantime, McGuinness suggested that meeting planners look closely at one project that's gone under the media radar but could have significant benefits sooner than the Javits Center—the redevelopment of Piers 92 and 94 as a midsize trade show facility.
Located between West 51st St. and West 54th St. on Manhattan's West Side along the Hudson River, the new facility will add 400,000 square feet of exhibition space and improve public waterfront access.
"This Class A convention facility will be completely transformed. It's been under the radar because of the size and scope of the project compared to the Javits Center ," said NYC & Co.'s McGuinness. "There will also be 15,000 square feet of meeting room space, 75,000 square feet of flexible meeting space and a large ballroom." McGuinness is expecting a formal announcement within the next 45 days.