New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is thinking big when it comes to development and infrastructure, judging by his State of the State address last week. He proposed tearing down the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which for more than 25 years has been tagged as an uncompetitive white elephant, then simultaneously building a super-sized new convention facility adjacent to the Aqueduct Race Track racing/gaming venue in Queens and offering up the Javits site in Manhattan as the biggest parcel in town. The governor also wants to leverage public-private partnerships to build an “energy highway” across the state.

No sooner had GlobeSt.com posted a story on Cuomo’s speech than comments appeared from readers. “A convention center in Jamaica, Queens? A ridiculous proposal,” scoffed one industry member, who added that the plan was “a disaster in the making.” Others in the real estate community took a brighter view of the Aqueduct scenario, with Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, telling GlobeSt.com that if it’s the right type of convention facility, then people will come.

There’s a pretty wide gap between these two viewpoints, but neither one is off base. If you look at some of the nation’s busiest convention centers, convenient location is one of the key selling points, while a congenial setting is another. Although the Aqueduct facility would be close to JFK International Airport, it’s about as remote from Midtown Manhattan as it’s possible to be while still technically located in New York City. That would mean the convention center being in one place and the city’s greatest attractions in another, unless you’re in town to play the ponies or the slots.

Not to mention that at present, hotel and transportation options in the vicinity of the racetrack/casino leave a lot of room for improvement. You could also argue that it’s counterproductive to move the city’s main convention facility miles away from its berth on Manhattan’s Far West Side when so much development—including new office towers—is slated for the neighborhood.

These are all the kinds of small details that can add up very quickly. History has shown plenty of examples, in both the public and private sector, of little things that are overlooked in the planning and execution process and which end up jeopardizing a project’s success in the long run.

But history is also filled with carefully thought-through projects that overcame the roadblocks and objections, and Spinola’s observation reflects this. Consider, for example, the convention center that Cuomo wants to outdo. The McCormick Place complex that now encompasses more than three million square feet of exhibit and meeting space on the shores of Lake Michigan replaces the original facility that burned to the ground in 1967, seven years after it opened. The center was rebuilt, and expanded, in phases, the most recent of which was completed just five years ago. Each stage of McCormick’s evolution entailed planning and, of course, funding. Haphazard it was not.

What Spinola is saying is that it can be done, not that the success of a grandiose concept can be taken for granted. As you’ll read here, the REBNY leader and others are even more enthusiastic about the flip side of the Aqueduct plan: making the 18 acres upon which the Javits Center now sits available for mixed-use development. The day after Cuomo's State of the State address, Spinola told GlobeSt.com that he’d already heard from two developers who wanted to build there.

That doesn’t mean shovels will be going into the ground at the site later this year, or even later this decade. Many questions need to be answered, details sorted out, approvals obtained, funding identified and secured. It’s one of the reasons that if the Javits/Aqueduct project does get built, Cuomo’s speech will be remembered as the call to action that started it all, way back when.