There was little pomp surrounding the end of the Centre Pompidou X project in Jersey City, just a couple of formal letters to museum and city officials marking the end of what Mayor Steve Fulop hoped would be a signature project of his administration.
“…on behalf of the State of New Jersey with regards to the proposed Centre Pompidou x Jersey City … we have decided to pause this project indefinitely … the Legislature has rescinded financial support, leaving us to determine that this project is unfortunately no longer feasible,” wrote Economic Development Authority CEO Tim Sullivan in a letter to Pompidou officials.
The other letter, from the state Department of State to the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, was more specific, saying the Legislature “… de-appropriates $24 million … and that state cancelled the remaining $18 million. All of it going back to the State General Fund.”
Fulop was defiant, saying it all goes back to his endorsement of U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-3rd) for U.S. Senate over New Jersey’s first lady, Tammy Murphy.
“The fact that they took away money that they had previously appropriated, they never do that, ever,” he said. “And to think about a $60 billion budget with tons of things that probably are unnecessary and then to go back several years to take away money, and that started on the week I endorsed Andy Kim, it kind of speaks for itself.”
The Murphy administration has said it wasn’t personal, but strictly business. They believe the museum would need massive public subsidy and that the city’s plan to keep it funded into the future wasn’t viable. The EDA has been involved in the Pompidou process from the beginning, said Fulop, expressing exasperation with state EDA officials.
“It is what it is,” he shrugged. “It’s unfortunate and short-sighted, and I’m disappointed.”
The news that the state was pulling out of the deal was well-received by mayoral candidate and former Gov. Jim McGreevey, who said the cost to taxpayers over the next decade would be “a third of a billion dollars.”
“The burden is going to be on the taxpayers,” said McGreevey. “Whether you look at NJPAC or you look at other projects that are high-end investments in arts and entertainment, it’s all well and good if it’s going to be self-sufficient and the burden is going to be on the entity.”
Many of the state’s largest arts institutions get regular public funding for operations and sometimes for capital improvements, but at over $200 million just to open the doors, Pompidou — or “the French Museum” as its critics were fond of calling it — was just too heavy a lift, said administration officials.
Kevin Bing, a Journal Square-based community activist and former city council candidate, was agnostic on Pompidou initially, but gave Fulop credit for taking the shot.
“Fulop going for Pompidou was a big swing, it was a big at bat, a big swing,” Bing said. “When you make a big swing, it’s not easy. There’s a lot of moving parts. You needed the museum that wanted to play ball. You obviously needed the state of New Jersey, and it’s really strange that the state of New Jersey just left us at the dance.”
So, what now? The city could sell the building and more than recoup the $10 million it cost to buy in 2017. But some still like the idea of a building with a public mission. Originally, it was purchased to be the home of the new “Jersey City Museum and Community Center.”
