Penn Station revamp key to revitalizing Midtown West: report

Madison Square Garden should be shifted to an alternate site in order to allow Penn Station to expand and to help kick off the revitalization of Midtown West, a new report suggests. The report, which was released Thursday by the Municipal Art Society and Regional Plan Association, offers several alternative locations for MSG, including a property near the Jacob Javits Convention Center on 11th Avenue, but doesn’t offer specifics on how such a plan would be funded.

“We need to insist that our elected officials, primarily the mayor and the governor, working with the congressional delegation, deliver the political will, the financing, and whatever new entity we need to deliver the project,” Robert Yaro, president of the plan association, told Crain’s. Yaro added that both mayoral candidates, Bill de Blasio and Joe Lhota, support both a 10-year permit for the MSG and the redevelopment of Penn Station.

The report also stated that Amtrak’s current efforts to create a new station inside Farley Post Office would provide the station with much-needed breathing room, according to Crain’s. Amtrak’s separate effort to boost capacity at a new southern extension of the station would also reduce the load at the main depot. [Crain’s]  – Hiten Samtani