The US$1.5 billion expansion of the Javits Convention Center is nearly completed as construction crews continue to put the final touches on the convention hall. The Javits expansion, funded primarily by a US$1 billion allocation in the state budget backed by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, was intended to make New York more competitive in the escalating competition for trade shows and the crowds they attract. Several other cities, including Las Vegas, Seattle, and San Francisco, have invested billions of dollars in the last several years to make their convention halls bigger and more appealing.
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Since New York went on lockdown in March 2020, the Javits Center has been a giant health care facility. In the early weeks of the pandemic, it was converted into an emergency hospital with 2,500 beds. Then, after remaining empty for several months, it reopened as a public vaccination center, providing more than 10,000 shots per day. It is unclear when the Javits Center will stop serving that role and revert to its normal purpose. Construction, which had been scheduled for completion in March, should be finished by late May at the budgeted cost of US$1.5 billion. The additions, which will increase the total space for events from about 2 million square feet to 3.3 million, will add meeting rooms, a ballroom, a rooftop pavilion, and a staging area for the trucks that deliver the exhibits
The work on Javits was also suspended last spring, but it resumed after two months, putting the project only slightly behind schedule, said Alan Steel, chief executive of the New York Convention Center Operating Corporation. The work on Javits was also suspended last spring, but it resumed after two months, putting the project only slightly behind schedule, said Alan Steel, chief executive of the New York Convention Center Operating Corporation.
