Money issues may sink proposed New Jersey branch of acclaimed Paris museum. Mayor blames politics
JERSEY CITY, NJ — New Jersey officials say financial concerns are prompting state lawmakers to pull $24 million in funding for a planned Jersey City outpost of Paris’s famed Pompidou Center. But the city’s mayor said he believes his deteriorating relationship with Gov. Phil Murphy led to the decision.
The Centre Pompidou x Jersey City was originally planned for construction on the site of a gutted industrial building, not far from where the Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor. At the time, it was seen as a way to attract tourists and New Yorkers to Jersey City’s burgeoning Journal Square neighborhood — a historically under-visited area that’s easily accessible by train from Lower Manhattan.
The satellite museum would be the first French museum in North America.
While both the city and state agreed that $176 million in construction costs would be funded entirely by public money, they disagreed on the annual operating budget. The city said $19 million in annual expenses would be covered by ticket sales, venue rentals, donations and a proposed tax on new buildings in the area. But the state considered that amount a regular deficit.
“Due to the continued impact of COVID and multiple global conflicts on the supply chain, rising costs, an unbridgeable operational gap, and the associated financial burden it will create for New Jersey taxpayers, the Legislature has withdrawn funding, forcing us to determine that this project is unfortunately no longer feasible,” Tim Sullivan, executive director of the state’s Economic Development Authority, said in a recent letter to museum officials.
Mayor Steve Fulop disputed these claims, saying The New York Times that Murphy initially supported the museum when the plans were announced in 2021, but things changed after he withdrew his support for Murphy’s wife, Tammy, in her bid to become the Democratic nominee in this year’s U.S. Senate race. Fulop instead backed Rep. Andy Kim.
Tammy Murphy withdrew from the race in March, saying she did not want to run a negative campaign against a fellow Democrat. Kim, who won last month’s primary, is now seeking the seat currently held by Bob Menendez, who is facing federal bribery charges.
“There is no doubt in my mind that this (funding decision) is directly related to my support for Andy Kim,” Fulop told the newspaper.
Natalie Hamilton, a spokeswoman for Murphy, noted that the governor had expressed concerns in April about the museum’s potential operating deficit, insisting at the time that it had “literally nothing to do” with politics.
“We can’t lock ourselves into a $19 million deficit forever and ever,” Murphy said at the time.
In a statement to the newspaper, a spokesperson for the Centre Pompidou said the museum “remains committed to ongoing discussions with the Mayor of Jersey City to jointly determine the future direction of the project.”