The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) on June 29 told the Centre Pompidou that it will not supply the tens of millions of dollars it had promised to fund the Paris museum’s planned Jersey City outpost. Announced in 2021 and originally set to open in 2024 in a 112-year-old industrial building in the city’s Journal Square district, Centre Pompidou x Jersey City was to have been the storied contemporary arts institution’s inaugural US satellite.
References: this article is based on content originally published by News Desk on Artforum. You can read the full article here.
“While we are honored that Jersey City was selected as the first North American location for a Centre Pompidou facility, we have decided to pause this project indefinitely,” wrote NJEDA CEO Tim Sullivan in a letter to Pompidou president Laurent Le Bon obtained by the New Jersey Monitor. “Due to the ongoing impact of COVID and multiple global conflicts on the supply chain, rising costs, an irreconcilable operating gap, and the corresponding financial burdens it will create for New Jersey’s taxpayers, the legislature has rescinded financial support, leaving us to determine that this project is unfortunately no longer feasible.”
References: this article is based on content originally published by News Desk on Artforum. You can read the full article here.
Also on June 29, Michael Greco, deputy executive director of the Department of State, wrote to Jersey City Redevelopment Agency chief Diana Jeffrey letting her know that the legislature in its fiscal year 2024 budget had deappropriated the $24 million allocated to the project in the fiscal year 2022 budget and asking for the $6 million already disbursed to be returned by August 1. The returned funds, along with the $18 million that had been earmarked for the project but not yet paid out, will be moved into the State General Fund.
References: this article is based on content originally published by News Desk on Artforum. You can read the full article here.
The funding collapse comes after New Jersey Republicans last year raised concerns about the project’s costs, which they suggested would top $200 million, representing “a circus of excess and waste.” This spring, NJEDA demanded that officials involved with Centre Pompidou x Jersey City explain how they intended to account for the gap between projected annual revenue of $4 million and annual expenses of $23 million for the project, which by now was slated to be completed as late as 2027.
References: this article is based on content originally published by News Desk on Artforum. You can read the full article here.
Democratic Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop has said that politics are behind the canceled funding, and that the project is being targeted in retaliation for his withdrawal of support for the now-ended Senate campaign of first lady Tammy Murphy. Fulop is running for governor this year, as Governor Phil Murphy reaches his term limit.
References: this article is based on content originally published by News Desk on Artforum. You can read the full article here.
In a statement to the Architect’s Newspaper, Jersey City press secretary Kim Wallace-Scalcione described the situation as “really unfortunate,” noting that “absolutely nothing changed in this project from what the governor and first lady knew initially and what they reference now, and there is plenty of documentation to support our point. The only thing that changed is the politics in New Jersey and the first lady’s failed candidacy.”
References: this article is based on content originally published by News Desk on Artforum. You can read the full article here.
Wallace-Scalcione additionally blasted NJEDA’s Sullivan, saying his “most recent comments on financial concerns are obviously not sincere as the governor signed off on more than $500 million in legislative Christmas tree items the last day of the budget, so clearly, financial responsibility of a budget is not a real concern. Over the next week, we need to discuss this with our partners abroad and see if there is a path forward.”
References: this article is based on content originally published by News Desk on Artforum. You can read the full article here.
The Centre Pompidou through a spokesperson acknowledged the state’s decision and said that it “remains committed to ongoing discussions with the Mayor of Jersey City to jointly determine the project’s future direction.”
References: this article is based on content originally published by News Desk on Artforum. You can read the full article here.
