NEW YORK — Empire State Development Corp. has selected a design-build team led by Lendlease Construction LMB Inc. and Turner Construction to oversee the $1.5 billion expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. The team also includes Atlanta-based architect tvsdesign, which is aiming for the center’s expansion to be certified LEED Silver.
Named after a former U.S. Senator from New York, the conference center is located on 11th Avenue in Manhattan’s Westside and bills itself as the busiest convention center in the country. The venue hosted events on 337 days in 2015. The six-block convention center opened in 1986 and spans 2.1 million square feet, of which 840,000 square feet is exhibition space.
According to media reports, the Lendlease-Turner team is planning on a 46-month construction schedule for the expansion.
The expansion will add 90,000 square feet of permanent space to the center’s current exhibit space, which will create an approximately 500,000-square-foot exhibition hall. Additionally the project will include 45,000 square feet of meeting room space and a 55,000 square-foot ballroom, the largest of its kind in New York City.
The expansion will also reroute 20,000 event-related trucks off area streets each year, which is expected to reduce the move-in and move-out process for events by 30 percent and free up an additional 20 days for new events.
Other key elements and sustainable features of the expansion include a green roof terrace and pavilion accommodating 1,500 people for outdoor events, 27 new loading docks, added kitchen and food service areas, new office space and an on-site truck marshaling facility with room for more than 230 event and exhibit-related trucks.
In 2015, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center hosted more than 175 events and 2 million visitors — ultimately generating an estimated economic impact of $1.9 billion.
“The Javits Center is one of New York State’s greatest economic assets, and this project will turn this building into a 21st century marvel, a convention center of the caliber that New York deserves,” says Howard Zemsky, president and CEO of Empire State Development and commissioner of the New York State Department of Economic Development. “With these new state-of-the-art facilities, we will be able to attract the world’s best conferences and events and drive economic activity throughout the region for decades to come.”
Founded in Sydney in 1958, Lendlease is an international property and infrastructure group with about 12,000 employees worldwide as of June 2016. The Americas region, headquartered in New York, offers project management and construction, public partnerships, development, asset and property management services.
With an annual construction volume of $11 billion, Turner is the one of the largest builder in the United States. The New York-based contractor specializes in the construction of healthcare, education, sports, commercial and green properties.
— John Nelson