State seeking contractor to transform Penn Station, Hochul says

The state will pick a contractor by early fall to lead the $7 billion transformation of Penn Station from a “dark,” “dreary” and “depressing” eyesore into a “majestic” 21st century transit hub for LIRR commuters, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday.

Hochul joined other elected officials and transportation leaders to announce that the long-debated redevelopment of Penn Station was moving into its design phase, as the state seeks requests for proposals from architectural and engineering firms on how to modernize the 112-year-old station.

"Today, rather than a point of pride, it's become an embarrassment," Hochul said at a news conference at the Moynihan Train Hall, adjacent to Penn Station. "This city, this region, deserves better. Our citizens deserve better."

The bids are due back by July 28, and the state expects to reward a contract by early fall.

The vision for an overhauled Penn Station was initially set by then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in January 2020, then tweaked by Hochul late last year.

The centerpiece of the plan involves removing much of the station’s upper level — now occupied by Amtrak, which owns Penn — to allow for a single-level station with tall ceilings and a concourse larger than Grand Central Terminal’s main hall. A skylit atrium will remind commuters “that, yes, the heavens are out there still, despite the feeling that you may be living in hell,” Hochul said. 

Hochul has said the project would cost between $6 billion and $7 billion and be funded, in part, through revenues generated from up to 10 new skyscrapers that would surround the station.

Waiting for her train at Penn on Thursday, Merrick commuter Edilynn Clermont said she was “very happy to hear” that the planned renovation was moving forward. Clermont said the conditions in the station have deteriorated so much that she now regularly uses the Moynihan Train Hall — opened in 2020 — on Eighth Avenue to get to and from Penn’s tracks.

“I always enter from there. I never enter from the regular Penn Station … because, for me, it’s just not safe,” Clermont said. “It is also very dirty and dark.”

Conditions at Penn have become a key sticking point for LIRR commuters, as evidenced by a railroad customer satisfaction survey released in December. The primary complaint cited by respondents was "the number of people panhandling, experiencing mental illness or homelessness at destination station."

But even while agreeing with the need to make upgrades at Penn Station — the busiest transit hub in the United States — several Manhattan civic groups and preservationists have rejected the plan, which they said aims primarily to benefit real estate developers above ground while destroying several historic buildings and doing relatively little to address commuters’ needs.

Lynn Ellsworth, of the Empire Station Coalition, which represents 15 organizations opposed to the redevelopment proposal, said the state’s plan is “just a fantasy rendering” that fails to address Penn’s biggest constraint — Madison Square Garden, which sits on top of the station.

“In any scenario where we’re still keeping an underground Penn Station, even if it’s more efficient and has more light in it and higher ceilings — it’s still underground,” said Ellsworth, who protested outside the governor’s news conference but was not allowed in.

Ellsworth and other project opponents have proposed a different plan that would not require demolishing historic buildings and would relocate Madison Square Garden in order to restore Penn to its original 1910 design.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Janno Lieber said the planned opening of a second LIRR terminal in Grand Central Terminal this year creates a window of opportunity to fix Penn while ridership is relatively low. Lieber said state officials could still pursue relocating Madison Square Garden in the future but need to “fix existing Penn now, not to wait another generation.”

A video produced by the state to promote the redevelopment project, and played before Hochul’s announcement, acknowledged that the original Penn Station offered a “first-class experience” and blamed its destruction on “shortsighted decisions.”

"This time we're going to get it right," Hochul said. "We're going to re-imagine not just the physical station, but the entire experience."

But Samuel Turvey, chairman of ReThink Penn Station NYC, which opposes the proposal, scoffed at the suggestion that the redeveloped facility would be "a worthy successor to the original Penn Station."

"It's just not," Turvey said. "They’re putting the best face they can on this, but this is a very compromised plan."

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.