All week long, Governor Andrew Cuomo has travelled across the state, unveiling bits and pieces of his State of the State speech that he's set to deliver next Wednesday. Thursday, he revealed plans to greatly expand the Javits Convention Center on Manhattan's West Side. State House Reporter Zack Fink was there and filed this report for "Inside City Hall."
Cuomo has had a busy week. Wednesday, he unveiled plans to revamp Penn Station, and Thursday the governor announced a $1 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.
"If you want to remain competitive, you have to grow and you have to increase to stay ahead of the competition," Cuomo said. "And that is just what we want to do with this plan."
The center opened in 1986 and holds conventions and trade shows, but industry leaders have been saying for years that it doesn't meet the demands of what trade groups are looking for today — namely more space.
Still, because it's in New York, Javits remains the busiest convention center in the nation. Under the Governor's plan, it would expand by more than 50 percent, from its current footprint of 2.1 million square feet, to 3.3 million.
"The Javits Center alone: 17,500 jobs," the governor said. "Almost half a million hotel room nights generated by Javits. $1.8 billion total economic impact."
Four years ago, the governor proposed building a new convention center near the Aqueduct in Queens.
"We believe we can attract $4 billion in private sector investment to build a state of the art convention center at the Aqueduct Racetrack," he said in 2012.
The idea was panned by critics, and the plan was quietly dropped by the administration. Some are now questioning the wisdom of the governor's latest plan.
"New York certainly needs a world-class convention center. The only question is whether this is the right location for it. The land underneath Javits right now is worth billions of dollars," Christopher Jones of the Regional Plan Association said. "So, there is potential to develop that for residential and office space [and] use that money to build a convention center in another location."
Cuomo has made infrastructure a big part of his governorship. He recently unveiled plans to overhaul LaGuardia Airport, and construction has already begun on a new Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson.