Javits Center Expansion On Target For 2021 Completion, Gov Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The massive, $1.5 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is expected to be complete by March 2021, making the project on-time and on-budget, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced over the weekend.

Cuomo joined members of the expansion team and construction workers on Saturday to sign one of the last steel beams to be installed at the construction site on 11th Avenue. The expansion will add 1.2 million square feet of space to the convention center by expanding Javits two full city blocks to West 40th Street.

"New Yorkers expect action, and the expansion of the Javits Center through the design-build process is delivering results in a safe, streamlined fashion that will generate a new wave of economic activity for the Empire State," Cuomo said in a statement.

Officials broke ground on the Javits Center expansion in March 2017. A LendLease and Turner joint venture was awarded the design-build contract that year after their bid was chosen by a state panel. The Javits Center is owned by Empire State Development.

"The Javits Center is one of the strongest supporters of New York's hotel, restaurant, tourism and transportation industries, and this expansion will ensure that this connection remains strong," Empire State Development Acting Commissioner Eric Gertler said in a statement.

Highlights of the expanded Javits Center include:

• A one-acre rooftop farm;
• About 90,000 square feet of new exhibit space;
• About 107,000 square feet of new meeting room space;
• A rooftop pavilion with a capacity for 1,500 people;
• Twenty-seven new loading docks;
• Bird-friendly glass;
• A 480,000 square-foot marshaling facility that will relocate 20,000 event trucks off nearby streets each year.