Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday revived long-delayed plans to overhaul New York's Pennsylvania Station under a $3 billion public-private partnership, saying "big problems require big solutions."
His plan, which he announced above the station and just outside Madison Square Garden in midtown Manhattan, involves a partnership with Amtrak, which owns the station, as well as Empire State Development – the state's economic development agency – and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, six of whose subway lines and its Long Island Rail Road unit access the station.
Key components include redeveloping the station and its LIRR and NJTransit concourses, and relocating the Amtrak waiting area and a restaurant-shop "train hall" across Eighth Avenue to the old Farley Post Office building while linking the old and new complexes underground. Cuomo hopes to break ground this year and complete "substantial construction" within three years.
A private developer would finance the project in exchange for retail development rights, according to Cuomo. Options include developing Farley alone, the station alone, or developing both, and could involve real estate consortiums. A joint venture consisting of Amtrak, Empire State Development and the MTA intend to issue a request for proposals for bidders this week with responses due in 90 days.
The $3 billion tab would include $2 billion to redevelop Farley and Penn and at least $1 billion for ancillary retail and commercial developments between 7th and 9th avenues. Cuomo said $325 million of this would come from government sources, including the U.S. Department of Transportation, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Amtrak.
Several design alternatives are on the table, including major exterior renovations involving 33rd Street, and 7th and 8th avenues.
In a clear indictment of the Penn Station brand, Cuomo called the proposed new station the "Empire Station Complex."
Cuomo trumpeted the move as part of a commitment to spend billions to fix infrastructure. Earlier in the day, he proposed a $22 billion, multi-year capital plan that he said would improve critical roads and bridges throughout New York, notably upstate.
Commuters and transit officials have long decried the station as excessively cramped.
"Frankly, it's a miserable experience and a terrible impression of New York," said Cuomo.
MTA board member Charles Moerdler once called the station "a garbage dump," adding: "Clean that place up. That place is awful."
Preservationists have also railed about the demolition of its architecturally-acclaimed predecessor, which dated to 1910, to make room for the newest Madison Square Garden. The third iteration of the Garden and the new Penn Station opened in 1968. Options for the new complex include eliminating the auxiliary MSG theater, which traces to its Felt Forum days in the late 1960s.
What to do with the station and Madison Square Garden has been a hot-button topic among urban planners for years. Proposals to move the Garden to the Farley building never materialized.
According to Cuomo, the station was originally designed to accommodate 200,000 daily passengers, but in reality it serves more than 650,000, with that total expected to double over 20 years.
Wednesday afternoon's announcement was the latest in a whirlwind week of infrastructure initiatives for Cuomo. On Tuesday he called for a third set of tracks on the Long Island Rail Road main line and a study of a tunnel to link Long Island with Westchester County, N.Y., or Connecticut.
Other projects the governor has touted include a massive renovation of LaGuardia Airport and a reconstruction of the Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River between Westchester and Rockland counties. New York State is also partnering with New Jersey and the federal government on a new rail tunnel connecting the two states.
