Cuomo Unveils Economic Development Plan for New York

In his State of the State address yesterday, Andrew Cuomo, Governer of New York, proposed building a convention center in Queens to replace the existing Javits Center. Cuomo would open the Javits Center site to bid for developers and create a development plan for museums, hotels, and housing on the existing site.

"A new 3.8-million-square-foot exhibition hall and hotel at the Aqueduct racetrack in Jamaica, Queens, would free up 18 windswept acres owned by the state overlooking the Hudson River in Midtown Manhattan, a site occupied since the 1980s by the much- maligned Jacob K. Javits Convention Center," writes Charles Bagli in The New York Times.

"...Still, the question is whether the Queens project makes sense, experts said. The convention business is highly competitive, and attendance is falling around the country. Most convention centers are run by public authorities at a deficit."

Brad Aaron at StreetsBlog offers his first impressions of the convention center plan: "While it's disappointing to see Cuomo tout a glitzy mega-project as economic development while ignoring bread-and-butter issues like subway and bus service (also noted by Gelinas), Streetsblog readers have pointed out one potential upside: Redeveloping the Aqueduct site in Ozone Park could spur reactivation of the LIRR's defunct Rockaway Branch."

Thanks to Elaine Mahoney