NEW YORK—A pair of well-known civic groups have come out in favor of moving Madison Square Garden from atop Penn Station to reconfigure the bustling Midtown hub.
Regional Plan Association and the Municipal Art Society are calling on city officials “to seize a unique opportunity this year to envision substantial changes to Penn Station, where overcrowded and grim public areas have plagued hundreds of thousands of daily commuters for nearly five decades,” according to an announcement.
More than 165,000 people come into and out of Penn Station every day, and that only accounts for the subway lines. State officials say it’s the busiest train station in the country.
Madison Square Garden received a special permit in 1963 for 50 years; the permit has expired. A land-use process has been triggered, in which the proposed renewal will go before Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and the City Planning Commission, and ultimately the City Council. The permit renewal would likely give Madison Square Garden permanent rights to the area.
As opposed to Grand Central Terminal, a similarly busy transit hub across Manhattan, Penn Station has little sunlight. Both hubs are usually very crowded.
“Penn Station can’t be moved, because it is linked to a vast network of tracks and other infrastructure that run below the station,” state the groups in their joint release. “Yet its location beneath Madison Square Garden means it would be nearly impossible to bring substantial light, air and space into the existing facility.”
Transforming the station would mean adding “a magnet for west Midtown,” according to the groups.
“This is the Holy Grail of economic development,” said Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Arts Society.
The groups will host a design challenge for a re-imagined Penn Station (minus Madison Square Garden) and hold a panel discussion about the area.
Instead of giving Madison Square Garden a permanent permit, the groups want a 10-year extension, which would give everyone involved enough time to find a different location for the garden while planning for the future Penn Station.
Yet the management of Madison Square Garden doesn’t want to move from the prime Midtown spot. Besides helping drive the city’s economy and supporting thousands of jobs, the garden is in the last year of a three-year upgrade.
“Following the completion of this self-funded, nearly $1 billion transformation, it is incongruous to think that MSG would be considering moving,” a spokesperson told Crain’s New York.
The City Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on April 10 regarding the proposed renewal, while the Regional Plan Association will have a panel discussion about the area as part of its annual assembly on April 19.
