“They are directly taking and improving their property with our tax dollars, which they don’t contribute,” said a member of the Community Advisory Committee Working Group, who was granted anonymity to speak frankly about internal conversations. Still, working group members worry that the proposal is shaping up to be a sweetheart deal for Madison Square Garden, as details of the massive development project continue to take shape primarily behind closed doors. But the negotiations haven’t started and there’s been no agreement on who will pay for what, the MTA said. The new loading dock - which would be constructed below the arena - is envisioned as a possible way to make up for the lost taxiway, which trucks currently use to load equipment into the venue. The MTA also confirmed to POLITICO that it will need to obtain a property interest from Madison Square Garden to build on the former taxiway and improve entrances on Eighth Avenue. Peter Matusewitch, a vice president in the MTA’s construction and development unit, confirmed those details at the April meeting, the sources said.
The MTA envisions covering the cost of a new loading dock and pedestrian walkway for the arena, which would be destroyed in the course of building the atrium over their former taxiway. The state’s $7 billion cost estimate for reconstructing Penn Station factors in an undisclosed amount of funding to build new infrastructure for Madison Square Garden, according to two members of the Community Advisory Committee Working Group, which meets monthly to internally deliberate plans to redevelop Penn Station and the surrounding area. Some worry the proposed improvements to Penn Station - which include skylit entryways, new public space and an underground connection to additional subway lines - don’t go far enough to justify what it could take to strike a deal to build a new train hall. When they face resistance, they just back off.” On the other hand, she added, “This is never the single most important thing or even the top five of what the government is doing. “It’s as simple as you have a company whose only asset is dependent on this real estate so they are very careful to protect it,” said Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a fiscally conservative think-tank, said in an interview. Kathy Hochul, whose grand vision for the area has hardly touched on what it will mean for the city’s sour relationship with Madison Square Garden. There was little inclination for Dolan to move Madison Square Garden - which is exempted from paying millions in city taxes - if the deal didn’t shape up to his liking. Eliot Spitzer’s administration came within spitting distance of a deal with Dolan to move the sports arena, but it ultimately collapsed. Past governors and lawmakers have since worked tirelessly on rectifying that wrong by proposing plans to rebuild Penn Station. Once a Beaux-Arts style train hall modeled after the Ancient Roman Baths, Penn Station was demolished in 1963 to make room for the entertainment venue. Madison Square Garden has long been the thorn in the side of past attempts to revive Penn Station to its former glory. “We could have a 100-foot high space, skylit, the size of Grand Central Station’s train hall and Moynihan Train Hall combined,” Lieber said at the time, referring to the cross-town stations for the Metro-North commuter rail and Amtrak.īut to build there, the MTA will have to first get permission from James Dolan, the longtime CEO of Madison Square Garden and billionaire owner of the Knicks and Rangers. In a November tour with reporters, Lieber called it the “difference maker” in the $7 billion project that’s designed to redeem the train hub’s tarnished image in the eyes of New Yorkers. It’s a key component of his plan to tear down the two-level structure of Penn Station and transform it into a single-level rail hub.
Lieber has proposed turning the former taxiway into a new 450-foot train hall encased in glass.
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