$1.5B Expansion At Javits Center Completed, Cuomo Says

MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN — A massive $1.5-billion expansion to the Javits Convention Center has wrapped up on time despite construction delays during the coronavirus crisis, when the facility was used as a field hospital and vaccination center, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.

Cuomo joined local officials for a ribbon cutting at the Midtown center Tuesday, touting the 1.2-million-square-foot expansion as a major step toward a transformation on Manhattan's west side and New York's reopening from the pandemic.

"We worked to continue the project through COVID because we knew that we would need it post-COVID, and that is exactly what has been accomplished here today," Cuomo said. "As the economy is reopening and crowds are regathering, we have the place for them to come at the new Javits Center."

The expansion, which started in 2017, includes a 50-percent increase in space across five floors of the facility, a new rooftop pavilion and a "marshaling facility" that will bring 20,000 event-related trucks off the street each year, according to the governor.

The project is part of an ambitious redevelopment plan for the west side of Midtown that includes hundreds of units of affordable housing, an expanded Penn Station and a revitalized Port Authority Bus Complex.

Combined, the Midtown West projects will cost $51 billion and could create as many as 196,000 jobs, according to the governor, who has called it "a transit-oriented development on a scale never attempted."

Patch reporter Nick Garber contributed to this report.