Paterson: Moynihan Needs New Transportation To Be ‘Favorable Investment’

The planned redevelopment and expansion of Penn Station, a top priority of the Spitzer administration, needs to include transportation improvements in order to be a "favorable investment" of the state's resources, Governor Paterson said today.

"What is essential to Moynihan Station is that it be a viable transportation hub," he said, speaking at a Crain's New York breakfast this morning. "If it doesn't include the transportation, its value diminishes considerably as far as I'm concerned."

The remarks suggest yet another turn in the project's long history, with yet another desire to expand its scope. The project, named Moynihan Station in honor of the late senator who championed it, has sat on the drawing boards since at least the early 1990s, growing steadily as governmental administrations changed. The plan was originally crafted in order to expand Penn Station into the neighboring Farley Post Office (an idea hatched by the U.S. Postal Service, which wanted to sell its assets, and Amtrak, which wanted a flagship station). Later, it grew into a medium-sized real estate deal, and then into a gigantic one, as the state brought on two developers, Vornado and Related, which want to get their hands on some 5 million square feet of development rights that can only be unleashed if Penn Station is improved. (Their plan to move Madison Square Garden to the rear of the Farley Post Office has failed, making a complete redo of Penn Station far more difficult).

Transportation advocates tended to greet the plan with enthusiasm, though its obvious deficiency was that it improved the transportation experience, not transportation capacity; and in a time of strained resources, some saw the hundreds of millions in public investment as difficult to justify solely for the economic development benefits of the project.

Based on the governor's comments and conversations state officials have had with people familiar with the project, it seems the Paterson administration wants to pursue two components of expansion connected to Moynihan: adding tracks and platforms to the block directly south of Penn Station (bounded by 30^th and 31^st streets, and Seventh and Eighth avenues), and perhaps connecting a planned New Jersey Transit tunnel under the Hudson River with the other tracks at Penn Station.

Should the Paterson administration indeed be pursuing these initiatives, the success of the project becomes a question of money, as the price tag could grow by a matter of billions (the expansion into the Farley building was projected to cost less than $1 billion in 2006, and a plan to redo Penn Station would have cost over $2 billion), that is, if a source for the money can be found.

The shift, Mr. Paterson said, comes as he saw a discord between fiscal reality and the needs of numerous projects in the state.

"This is an example of what I was talking about earlier, where the failure to connect the downturn in the economy with existing plans was something that I found to be overwhelming when I first came into office," he said. "In other words, everyone understands the economy's a problem, but it's the situation where, ‘My project must go forward.'

"I don't see any way that they all can go forward. The resources aren't there; the capital isn't there."