Spitzer backs down on Javits parcel

The state has backed away from a plan to sell a plot of land just north of the Javits Center after Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the Speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, said a sale would doom any future expansion of the convention center. Economic Development Chief Patrick Foye told a Senate committee the deal was suspended. State officials had said they need the $900 that the land sale would net to fund Gov. Spitzer’s affordable housing initiative. But the mayor and other critics said the state should hold onto the land, located on 39th and 40th streets and 11th and 12th avenues.