Unconventional

New York needs a modern, efficient, accessible facility for trade shows and expositions, a centrally located, top-of-the-line venue for professional conferences and meetings, and a great railroad station to serve over 400,000 commuters and intercity passengers daily.

The city can have all these things—along with development made possible by seven full blocks of waterfront real estate in Manhattan’s burgeoning Midtown West neighborhood—at no cost to the taxpaying public.

The key to unlocking all this economic value: rethink the Jacob J. Javits Convention Center.

Revitalization of the Javits site would become the largest urban development project in New York State—indeed in the entire nation. It would generate tens of thousands of construction and permanent jobs and billions of dollars in additional tax revenues for New York City and New York State. It would underpin the development of the Midtown West district that will be the focus of much of the city’s growth in this century.

It’s time to recognize that Javits is attempting to fulfill two different roles—and excelling at neither. It is too small for most consumer and trade shows and lacks the accessibility and meeting space necessary for conferences.

New York now has an unprecedented opportunity to build a brand-new, top-of-the-line conference center next door to America’s busiest train station—in the James A. Farley Post Office’s western half, known as ​“the Annex.” A public-private partnership is in the process of transforming the post office, which sits above most of the train tracks into Penn Station, into Moynihan Station. Remarkably, the timing of these efforts matches up with development prospects for either of two high-potential tradeshow sites: Willets Point, 1.5 miles from LaGuardia Airport, and Aqueduct Racetrack, 5 miles from JFK.

Other great world cities including Tokyo, Hong Kong, Madrid, and Milan have separated the roles of trade-show venue and conference center into facilities designed for these very different functions. Trade-show venues require large floorplates and excellent truck access. These cities—as well as U.S. cities with large convention facilities, such as Las Vegas, Orlando, and Chicago—have moved this function outside their central business districts to sites with much lower land costs and better highway and airport connections. Moreover, some of these places are able to sustain a regional network of smaller conference centers in addition to a large trade-show venue.

With Javits occupying very high-value real estate—with inadequate truck access for the hundreds of 18-wheelers needed to set up and take down large trade and consumer shows—in the city’s next great central business district, New York needs to take a similar tack. The availability of the Farley Annex to attract the conference market makes the timing ideal. Indeed, New York is likely capable of supporting regional conference centers in, for example, Newark and Stamford, as well as a premier Manhattan venue and a large trade-show facility nearby—but outside—the Manhattan central business district.

While a modern trade-show venue needs at least 800,000 square feet of exhibition space, a conference (or ​“congress”) center requires only 300,000-500,000 square feet to attract the high-end professional meetings that have long bypassed New York for places like Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, and even Toronto.