![]() ![]() Marc Jacobs in talks to open new flagship store at 645 Fifth Ave as Midtown continues comebackĬitadel presses pause on 280 Park Avenue despite hiring spree He was among a group of 15 senators who sent a letter to state officials in March, demanding that they “pause the Penn Station plan until these answers have been provided.NYC sees some sanity as outdoor furniture encouraging drug use and vagrancy is put on ice Also, the new office buildings would compete with Hudson Yards, the newest office district in Manhattan, which has a similarly structured property-tax deal.Ī report issued last month by the city’s Independent Budget Office concluded that the state had provided too little information about the funding plan to determine whether it is viable, or if taxpayers would have to foot the bill if the revenue from the new towers fails to materialize.Īnother state senator from Manhattan, Brad Hoylman, said taxpayers should be made aware of the financial risks of the project before the board votes to approve the general plan. The opponents include State Senator Liz Krueger, who has questioned the wisdom of betting on office real estate in New York City at a time when the pandemic has upended the way people work and has led companies to shed space at record rates. ![]() There has been vocal opposition from the outset from many elected officials and community leaders. The city would not benefit from the additional property taxes on the new buildings until the station improvements are paid off. The tax breaks for developers could be lucrative, a recent analysis concluded, potentially including $1.2 billion in tax breaks for Vornado, the largest landowner in the area. ![]() That arrangement is part of a complex financial scheme known as payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, that would suspend additional property taxes on the buildings for decades after they are constructed. The payments from the developers would derive from office leases, retail sales, apartment rentals and the hotel. is leading the $7 billion renovation project at the station but New York expects the federal government, Amtrak and New Jersey to contribute most of the money.Īn agreement the state reached with New York City allows for payments from developers of the 10 towers to cover part of station renovation costs, all of the costs of the pedestrian and street improvements and half of the costs of the new subway entrances and underground concourses. To build them would require demolishing a wide swath of establishments, including a Hooters, an Irish restaurant and various tourist shops. The new towers on Vornado’s five properties around Penn Station could exceed 10 million square feet - more than half of the entire redevelopment’s total size - and consist of a hotel, offices, stores and up to 1,256 residential units. Its largest tenant, Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, leases 1.4 million square feet from Vornado, including space at the Farley Building across the street from Penn Station. Its chief executive, Steven Roth, has called the redevelopment of the Penn Station area the company’s “Promised Land” and has pitched its current and future towers there as the New York home for the largest technology companies in the world. It owns about 20 million square feet of office space in the city, about half of which is near Penn Station. ![]() Most of the new towers would rise on sites owned by Vornado Realty Trust, the publicly traded company that is one of the largest developers of office space in Manhattan. The state’s plan does not address what would happen, if anything, with Madison Square Garden, whose operating permit at the site expires in 2023. Hochul, however, has embraced the plan, calling Penn Station a “hellhole.” State officials have linked the upgraded Penn Station with the construction of the 10 towers, arguing that the larger development is required to help pay for the transit renovations. That project could cost $13 billion and would require federal approval. Separate from the overhaul of Penn Station, state officials have also endorsed a plan to build a new train hall south of the site that would increase rail and passenger capacity, with new lines and platforms. The station would have to be expanded, with more tracks, to handle the additional trains that new Hudson tunnels could deliver. Before the pandemic, Penn Station was overwhelmed at rush hour with packed commuter trains arriving from Long Island and New Jersey clogging the tracks beneath Midtown. The renovation, by itself, will not solve the station’s traffic problems. ![]()
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