Tradeshow Week: MMPI to Add Exhibit Space to New York's Pier 94

From "Tradeshow Week" -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 5/9/2008 10:15:00 AM

 
New York — For more than a decade, show managers with maxed-out tradeshows in New York City have been promised the sun, moon and stars when it came to expanding the Jacob K. Javits Center of New York and the city-owned Piers 92 and 94 in the West 50s.

Of particular concern to the gifts and decorative accessories industry, are the two seasonal New York Intl. Gift Fairs held in winter and summer. 

Now, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc.(MMPI) may have finally answered their prayers, according to a report in Tradeshow Week (TSW),  a sister publication of Gifts & Decorative Accessories, with the planned $100 million expansion of Pier 94, also known as The 'UnConvention Center.' The expansion would add 215,000 sq.ft. of exhibit space to the existing 140,000 sq. ft. Next door, The Show Piers on the Hudson at the New York City Passenger Terminal have an additional 210,000 sq. ft.

MMPI already owns and manages 10 million sq. ft. of space in numerous U.S. cities that are key showroom locations for the gift and decorative accessories industry, and central to industry trade shows. Among them are the LA Mart, the Chicago Merchandise Mart and 7 West in Manhattan. MMPI President Chris Kennedy told TSW that in February, the company will take over management of the piers from ENK Intl.

He added that MMPI won the management contract because the expansion plans the company presented to the city were tradeshow-driven. "ENK had a lot of catering and special events," Kennedy said. "The economic impact of tradeshows won out."

Dorothy Belshaw, senior vice president of George Little Management, a dmg world media company, and executive director of the New York Intl. Gift Fair told Tradeshow Week the news was "fabulous." But she said she would be "cautiously optimistic," until she saw the expansion plans.

Click here to read the entire Tradeshow Week report.