New Jersey Outpost of Centre Pompidou is Officially Scrapped
Exterior rendering of the first incarnation of Centre Pompidou x Jersey City, an adaptive reuse project at Journal Square. This site was later nixed and the plan rebooted at a different nearby location in Jersey City.
Nearly five years since it was first announced to considerable fanfare, the first North American satellite location of famed Parisian modern art museum Centre Pompidou planned for Jersey City, New Jersey, has officially been nixed. Jason Long, partner at the New York office of OMA, was lead architect of the project, with KRE Group acting as developer. Officials with Centre Pompidou confirmed that it would not be moving forward although the effort is still listed as “ongoing” on OMA’s website.
“Centre Pompidou has acknowledged this decision, which is part of long-term projects contingencies,” said a museum spokesperson in a statement shared with ARTnews.
The news comes less than a month into the tenure of James Solomon, the new mayor of Jersey City, whose predecessor, Steve Fulop, was a tireless booster of the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City scheme, which has long been in limbo (it was first slated to open in 2024) due to a $250 million budget shortfall and a loss of financial support from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) and local sources. In the summer of 2024, the EDA announced that the contentious project, which would have been originally located within a derelict, century-old structure opposite Jersey City’s Journal Square PATH station (the proposed site was later moved to a nearby high-rise development), was being put on the back burner indefinitely—but not being scrapped entirely. At the time, EDA CEO Tim Sullivan cited the “the ongoing impact of COVID and multiple global conflicts on the supply chain, rising costs, an irreconcilable operating gap, and the corresponding financial burdens [the museum] will create for New Jersey taxpayers” as the reasoning behind the decision.
According to reporting by NJ.com, Solomon announced the final blow to Centre Pompidou x Jersey Center at a recent press conference. When asked about the status of the troubled project, he clarified: “We will not be doing Pompidou, to be clear. It is dead.” Per NJ.com, Fulop had urged Solomon to not give up on the project and that it would cost “tens of millions of dollars to reverse” what the city had already invested in it.
As of 2024, it was reported that the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency had awarded OMA $11.6 for architectural services since planning first commenced in 2018, three years before the museum was announced.
Centre Pompidou’s landmark flagship location, designed by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris remains closed until 2030 while it undergoes extensive renovations. In addition to a regional outpost in the French city of Metz designed by Shigeru Ban, the museum also operates international satellite locations in Shanghai and Malaga, Spain, with additional branches in the works, including in Brazil. A new, permanent location for the KANAL-Centre Pompidou Brussels is set to open later this year. The original proposed site for the Jersey City branch at Journal Square will now potentially be adapted into a boutique hotel and food hall.
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