Officials: MSG permit extension spurs push to speed Penn Station project

MTA officials and New York elected leaders agree that Madison Square Garden getting a five-year extension of its operating permit means they must move fast to redevelop Penn Station — and share a vision about the new station's design.

While different parties remain far apart on some details of the plan, they all now agree that it must include a grand, new entrance on Eighth Avenue.

“There’s going to be a lot of different versions and a lot of different options, but it’s all going to be done openly and in partnership," said MTA chairman and CEO Janno Lieber, who made a surprise appearance alongside politicians and activists outside of MSG on Tuesday to present a unified front in supporting an $8 billion reconstruction of a transit hub primarily used by LIRR commuters.

“There’s a window of opportunity that we cannot miss to fundamentally alter Penn Station," Lieber said.

The show of solidarity comes days after New York City Council members voted to extend MSG’s operating permit, which was about to expire, for another five years. The Garden had hoped to have the permit granted in perpetuity. But the MTA urged the city to use its leverage to force the Garden to work with the transit authority in redeveloping Penn, including by turning over some of its property. City lawmakers have suggested that the five-year extension, shorter than previous ones, will keep pressure on MSG to cooperate.

In a statement, an MSG Entertainment spokesperson said: “Recognizing that the decision on which plan goes forward is not ours to make. We look forward to collaborating with all key stakeholders on improving Penn Station.”

Manhattan Borough president Mark Levine said that with MSG having to state its case for an extension before the city in five years, project supporters “have more momentum than ever for building a great Penn Station.”

“There is a lot in place now to do something big that might not be in place in another five years,” Levine said.

Although there have been competing visions for a Penn Station revamp, speakers at the news conference signaled newfound harmony on one key aspect of the plan — construction of a grand “train hall” and entrance on Eighth Avenue.

One proposal, by private developer ASTM, calls for the acquisition and demolition of the Theater at Madison Square Garden — formally known as the Hulu Theater — to accomplish that goal. The MTA has opposed that plan because relatively few riders enter Penn through Eighth Avenue and because it could entail paying MSG for the theater. But MTA capital construction chief Jamie Torres-Springer on Tuesday indicated some flexibility, saying that ASTM’s plan, in most ways, is “exactly” like that endorsed by the Long Island Rail Road.

A spokesperson for ASTM declined to comment.

“I think there’s less division than the media may want to purport that there is,” Torres-Springer said of the competing visions between the MTA and ASTM. “There’s a lot of alignment among everybody about what we’re doing here.”

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.