Latest news with #GrandPennCommunityAlliance
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Would You Trade Madison Square Garden for Penn Station?
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Penn Station might get a radical overhaul. Or at least, it's been proposed. A nonprofit advocacy group, Grand Penn Community Alliance, helmed by Alexandros Washburn, wants to restore the once-actually-nice-to-visit station. It'll just require tearing down—moving, and then rebuilding—Madison Square Garden. Once upon a time, Pennsylvania Station was considered a Beaux-Arts masterpiece. Opened in 1910, the original Penn Station was the 'magnum opus' of design firm McKim, Mead, & White, whose 'monumental architecture echoed the great spaces of Ancient Rome,' as the New York Historical puts it. Covering four whole city blocks, the colonnaded station was truly a marvel. (And did you know: Before it was built, getting between New Jersey and Manhattan meant a 20-minute ferry ride—when the weather was good.) In the ensuing years, the city transformed, and with it the way people traveled. By 1962, it seemed like a good idea to put an entertainment arena where the above-ground station had been for just over 50 years. Enter Madison Square Garden, above, and Penn Station, as we know it now, underground. The demolition of Penn Station was wildly controversial. In fact, states the New York Historical, the 'demolition spurred the passage of the watershed 1965 New York Landmarks Law,' which helped save Penn's 'sister' terminal, the beloved Grand Central, 'along with 30,000 other historic buildings around the city.' So while most of us have likely forgotten that Penn Station preceded Madison Square Garden, the proposed reboot of the above-ground Penn is actually not so radical. Also, the station, like everything to do with trains and subways in New York, is overburdened. 'We urgently need to create both new capacity and amenity in the next version of Penn Station,' Robert Yaro, the former president of the Regional Plan Association, told AMNewYork. 'The Grand Penn Community Alliance plan does these things and also gets us a new MSG for the same cost as simply patching up the existing station and Garden.' Washburn and the Grand Penn Community Alliance are making a case for cost efficiency. With the addition of a park, and a station that recaptures the stately stature of its predecessor, the price tag is about $6.3 billion, which, according to the alliance, would be '$1 billion less' than previous proposals by the state and Amtrak. You Might Also Like From the Archive: Tour Sarah Jessica Parker's Relaxed Hamptons Retreat 75 Small (But Mighty) Kitchens to Steal Inspiration from Right This Instant
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Penn Station revamp plans proposes moving Madison Square Garden
MANHATTAN, N.Y. (PIX11) — Penn Station is a busy place. Grand Penn Community Alliance has unveiled new plans for the area around and under Penn Station and they're heading to Washington, D.C. More Local News The group says they're scheduling meetings with federal transit agencies in the coming weeks. The group is made up of engineers, architects, and planners. They call this the ' first outside proposal to be formally submitted.' It includes a new train hall, a new public park, and double the number of platforms. This proposal requires Madison Square Garden to move across 7th Avenue to the open lot formerly the home of the Hotel Pennsylvania. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State MSG has not commented on the recent plans. Supporters of this proposal are calling on deal-makers in the city and Washington. Grand Penn Chief Architect Alexandros Washburn gave a presentation and took questions. More Transit News 'Something better can be done. We don't have to accept the status quo,' he said. Other proposals are also circulating including a plan from ReThinkPennNYC. That proposal does not require tearing down apartments. Last week, NY Assemblymember Tony Simone announced a plan focused on housing. He's calling on the state to come back to the table. The state of New York had been working on plans for years with developers that included office towers to finance the program. The MTA has transformed the concourse and opened new access. Governor Kathy Hochul paused the next part of the discussion in 2023. The administration continues to work on advancing work and development at the site. 'Governor Hochul is laser focused on fixing Penn Station now. The railroad partners are in the process of completing preliminary design for the Penn Reconstruction project and concurrently soliciting input from community stakeholders through the Station Working Advisory Group,' wrote a spokesperson. At the completion of that process, the governor expects an official request for proposals to be released. They're encouraging the private sector to and concepts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New York Times
11-03-2025
- Business
- New York Times
A New Pitch to Fix Penn Station: Move Madison Square Garden
Nearly two years after New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, vowed to fast-track the long-overdue redesign of Pennsylvania Station, little has changed for the Manhattan transit hub that she once called a 'hellhole.' Two serious renovation proposals — one from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the other from a private developer — have both been stalled for months, leaving some to wonder if the project was dead. Now, an influential interest group is proposing a different approach: Move Madison Square Garden, which sits on top of the station, across the street and replace it with a much bigger train hall and a park. Expanding the train station, the busiest in the nation, is a pressing issue because construction has just begun on a $16 billion pair of rail tunnels under the Hudson River, the centerpieces of a project known as Gateway, which would double the current cross-Hudson capacity. The added tracks could help solve the frequent delays that cause havoc for hordes of commuters. But they will not relieve the gloom of daily slogs through Penn's claustrophobic subterranean concourses. That's why so many groups have offered up their ideas for improving Penn Station. The latest plan is proposing to pay for the construction of a new sports arena on a site that includes the former Hotel Pennsylvania on Seventh Avenue, in exchange for the right to demolish the current Garden. The new train hall, unencumbered by the arena, could double the station's capacity to 48 trains per hour, provide a suite of new safety and accessibility features and address riders' biggest complaints about the cramped station, said Alexandros Washburn, who is leading the project for Grand Penn Community Alliance. There would also be room to create a sprawling green space, similar in size to Bryant Park, that would effectively serve as a giant backyard for a new 125-foot-tall train hall. 'This is a chance to do it right, once and for all,' said Mr. Washburn, who is also the former chief urban designer for New York City. He added that the plan could be achieved for roughly the same cost, about $7.5 billion, and on a similar timeline as a proposal by the M.T.A. that would leave the Garden in place. The plan would require an as-yet unnamed developer to buy the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania, which was demolished in 2023, as well as several adjacent properties, for about $1.3 billion. The construction of a new sports arena would cost around $2.3 billion, and the new Penn Station would cost another $4 billion. Construction would begin with the new arena, so as not to disrupt programming. The entire project would take about 11 years. But the project faces complex challenges. Much of the proposed site for a new arena is owned by Vornado, the real estate firm that had sought to build up to 10 nearby skyscrapers, mostly dedicated to office space, as part of a plan to fund improvements in the area. The pandemic stalled that plan, and Governor Hochul announced in 2023 that the redesign of Penn Station would no longer rely on revenue from its development. Mr. Washburn said that his group has met with Vornado about buying the proposed site and that they showed interest. Vornado declined to comment. Then there is the Garden, which is controlled by companies led by James Dolan, the mercurial billionaire who has resisted past calls to relocate the arena. Mr. Washburn said the move would benefit the nearly 60-year-old venue because the new site would allow for easier truck access and other modern amenities. A move, he added, could also help Mr. Dolan secure a permanent license for the arena after years of negotiating temporary extensions. MSG Entertainment, which operates the Garden, did not respond to requests for comment. Any plan for Penn Station must satisfy not just those groups, but also the transit hub's owner, Amtrak, the national rail company operated by the federal government. In a statement, Amtrak repeated its commitment to upgrading the station and said it was 'essential that options are evaluated on their ability to meet the transportation needs of the region, and their ability to enhance the Northeast Corridor's critical role in powering the national and regional economy.' A major redesign would also have to be approved jointly by the states of New York and New Jersey, which control the M.T.A. and New Jersey Transit respectively, both of which also run trains into the station. New York is also counting on the federal government to provide billions of dollars for the station's renovation and expansion. Other than about $150 million to help pay for planning the work, none of that federal funding has been secured. Ms. Hochul said last fall that she had sought support from then President-elect Donald Trump. But that was before a dispute broke out this year between their two administrations over the car-tolling program in Manhattan known as congestion pricing. The M.T.A., which Ms. Hochul controls, is continuing the program despite the federal government's order to halt it. A spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul said in a statement that the governor was 'laser focused on fixing Penn Station now' and that the state would solicit proposals from the private sector, but did not provide a timeline. The M.T.A. had previously said that it would reach a critical design goal by last summer, at which point it would revise the budget and solicit proposals from bidders. But that has not yet happened. John J. McCarthy, the chief of policy and external relations at the M.T.A., said the agency had not seen Mr. Washburn's plan but was concentrating on projects that improved the station, like the recent completion of a new Long Island Rail Road concourse. The agency had been critical of a competing plan by ASTM Group, a private developer that would demolish a smaller portion of the arena to make way for major transit improvements. Janno Lieber, the head of the M.T.A., called the plan wasteful, in part because it would pay Madison Square Garden for the privilege. Peter Cipriano, the executive vice president of Halmar International, the developer of the ASTM project, said the company remained ready to compete with other bidders, if given a chance. Yet another plan was unveiled last week by Assemblyman Tony Simone, a Democrat whose district includes Penn Station, and other elected officials. Their plan ruled out taking any private property and focused on constructing more residential buildings centered around a large park on the former site of the Hotel Pennsylvania. Mr. Simone called on Ms. Hochul to reopen the planning process and 'engage the community on a housing-first plan.' Mr. Simone said he had pitched his idea to Vornado, and it had not been rejected.
