On Saturday, June 29, a planned museum by the Centre Pompidou in Jersey City was jeopardized after lawmakers in New Jersey withdrew financing from the institution, citing financial difficulties.
The institution, one of several international satellites run by the Paris-based modern art museum, was originally scheduled to open in 2024 but had to postpone it by a few years.
The head of The Centre Pompidou museum in Paris received a letter from the state's Economic Development Authority, informing that the tens of millions of dollars in funding that NJ had promised would not be given to Pompidou's proposed North American location in Jersey City's Journal Square neighborhood.
In a separate letter to the chairman of the Jersey City agency in charge of the project, a state official said that lawmakers had shifted state funds originally set aside for the Jersey City Pompidou outpost.
"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operating gap, and the corresponding financial burdens it will create for New Jersey's taxpayers, the Legislature has rescinded financial support, leaving us to determine that this project is unfortunately no longer feasible," Economic Development Authority chief Tim Sullivan said to Laurent Le Bon, the Pompidou's president.
The 58,000-square-foot museum, officially named the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City, would be the first Center Pompidou satellite to open in North America. Others are already open in Belgium and China.
The other letter was addressed to Diana Jeffrey, the head of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, from Michael Greco, the deputy executive director of the Department of State. Greco requested that the agency return the $6 million the state had provided for the project but had not yet been spent.
According to the letter, the $18 million from the 2022 budget and the $24 million that the lawmakers had set aside for the 2024 budget have been transferred back to the state's general fund.
"Based on the Legislature's actions, there is no longer any State support available for this project," Greco said.
