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Jersey City has bid farewell to the idea of establishing a French art museum within its borders after squandering $20 million in taxpayer funds.
The Pompidou x Jersey City venture failed to make any tangible progress, spending a significant amount without constructing even a single wall or displaying any artwork, The Post has learned.
“We had elevator consultants, lighting consultants, sound consultants, a food consultant, and even three roofing consultants. There was a French attorney from Paris involved, all for a construction site that the city abandoned when state funding was withdrawn. Oui oui, it’s insane,” a project insider, who was not authorized to speak publicly, shared with The Post.
The plan was for Jersey City to host a branch of the renowned Pompidou art museum from Paris, known for its iconic pieces by modern artists like Henri Matisse, Frida Kahlo, Vassily Kandinsky, and Marcel Duchamp.
However, the final blow came this month when the newly elected Mayor of Jersey City, James Solomon, announced to reporters: “To be clear, we will not pursue the Pompidou project. It is over,” thus concluding years of speculation about the initiative, which was initially revealed in 2021.
The $20 million the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency spent went on nearly 30 “consultants,” according to New Jersey State senate reports.
Since the project was conceived in 2018, the New York branch of Netherlands architecture company OMA has been awarded $11.6 million for work on the project, according to NJ.com, which stated all the money was spent on design work for the Pathside Building at 25 Journal Square.
The museum was set to occupy the 58,000 square foot, historic 1912 trolley station which has easy access to the nearby PATH trains from Manhattan. However, in 2024 that plan was wholly abandoned.
A further $4.5 million was paid to Centre Pompidou in Paris for licensing fees and branding rights.
Progressive Democrat mayor Solomon recently listed financial blunders he said were to blame for Jersey City’s $255 million budget shortfall on social media — about 30 percent of the city’s budget, including the $20 million on the nonexistent museum — the first time the number had been made public.
Announced in 2021 to much pomp from Jersey City officials and Manhattan art buffs, the project had immediately caught the ire of an unlikely coalition of local artists, anti-gentrification activists and budget hawks.
Criticism persisted, centered on the project’s financial irresponsibility — with a price tag initially estimated at $200 million — which naysayers claim included risky operating deficits, a diversion of taxpayer funds from more pressing priorities and lost revenue from the controversial 30-year tax abatement the project was granted.
Annual operating costs were also eye-watering, estimated up to $34 million with only $4 million in projected revenue.
Even sex-scandal embattled former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey, who ran for mayor against Solomon last year, opposed the project saying Jersey City “cannot afford” the investment.
In September 2024, 19 Jersey City arts professionals also signed an open letter strongly opposing the project.
“It does not make sense to invest immense taxpayer funds for a foreign institution to come to Jersey City when our schools, parks, public transportation, and affordable housing are severely in need of resources, as are Jersey City’s homegrown arts organizations and artists,” the artists stated in their letter.
“The idea that a foreign museum will somehow magically put us on the map is faulty and outdated thinking.”
The same year the museum was moved to an even larger space: 100,000 square feet in the ground floors of a planned high rise condominium tower owned by Kushner Real Estate Group, which would have also gained a 30-year tax abatement for housing it.
It is unclear if any of OMA design work and planning were able to be transferred to the new building. OMA did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
Also in 2024, the state rescinded $24 million in taxpayer funding, leaving the remaining $34 million promised in state and federal aid for the project dangling in the balance. That money has since been reallocated, following Solomon’s announcement.
Then-mayor Steve Fulop, the project’s biggest cheerleader, claimed the state snatched the money away in retaliation after he withdrew his support for then-Gov. Phil Murphy’s wife in the Democratic primary for US Senate.
The project raised more eyebrows when New Jersey Republican senator Michael Testa accused it of resembling a pay-to-play operation — citing the over 30 consultants that had been brought in, some without competitive bidding, in a memo to Tom Neff in the New Jersey legislature.
In February 2023, a Jersey City nonprofit funded by local real estate developers paid for a lavish trip to Paris, claiming museum-related business, for Fulop and seven others.
The world-famous Pompidou art museum, based in Paris, has been aggressively expanding in recent years, opening a satellite in Shanghai in 2019 with others planned for Brussels, South Korea and Brazil.
The museum network has 140,000 pieces of art in its collection which Jersey City would have had access to, including those usually displayed in the Paris central museum, which closed last year for renovations and is not expected to reopen until 2030.
In a statement to The Post, The Pompidou center did not indicate whether they will refund the $4.5 million for licensing it was given, but said: “Centre Pompidou has worked closely with Jersey City’s partners and stakeholders since 2021… On September 15, the newly elected mayor Mr. James Solomon decided not to pursue this project. Centre Pompidou acknowledges this decision, which is part of the contingencies of long-term projects.”