The Related Companies has boosted the title (and workload, presumably) of Vishaan Chakrabarti, project manager for the Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust on Moynihan Station.

Mr. Chakrabarti, formerly a senior vice president, has been named Executive Vice President of Design and Planning. He will continue to lead the Moynihan Station effort, according to a Related spokeswoman.

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In case there was any doubt, Steve Roth and Steve Ross really want Madison Square Garden to move.

This morning, some 13 weeks after Madison Square Garden announced it was renovating and staying in place (i.e. not moving), the developer duo professed, once again, their eagerness to see the Paterson administration pick up the ball and move forward with the large-scale Moynihan Station plan. The plan, in its most recent iteration, would involve the state using Port Authority money intended for regional transportation projects to buy the Garden and its air rights from the Dolan family—that is, if they’re willing to sell (the Dolans have expressed no interest and are moving forward with the renovation).  read more »

The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bill that would authorize billions in federal spending on Amtrak, boosting opportunities for high-speed rail and other programs in the Northeast and around the country.

The bill, which would allow more than $14 billion in spending, could also provide some money for Moynihan Station as part of a $2.5 billion grant program, according to Representative Jerry Nadler’s office, which has been active in pushing the bill. It also contains a provision that would have Amtrak take proposals to build a higher-speed rail link between Washington, D.C., and New York City, looking to reduce the trip to two hours; however, such a proposal would likely cost billions.  read more »

Vornado Realty Trust CEO Steve Roth told investors Tuesday that he wants to redo Penn Station in a scaled-back version of the grand Moynihan Station plan, moving Madison Square Garden’s WaMu theater out of the arena structure to make way for a large train station entrance hall.

Despite a push by Vornado and co-developer Related Companies to keep the larger-scale project alive via government support, Mr. Roth indicated he considers that scenario unlikely.

“[We] basically feel that something good is going to happen,” he said. “Either that the governments are going to get their acts together, which they probably will not, or ... we have with Madison Square Garden a Plan B, which is they stay where they are, we take out the theater, we—underneath the seating bowl of the arena—put a new grand entrance to Eighth Avenue and a new grand entrance to the station on Seventh Avenue, and what that will do is create a grand train station. Not quite as grand as moving it, but pretty nice. Actually, spectacularly nice.”  read more »

When Madison Square Garden unceremoniously announced on March 27, via late-afternoon calls to reporters, that it was moving forward on a renovation of its arena, it seemed to be the death blow to the planned redevelopment of Pennsylvania Station and the surrounding area. The Garden, led by chairman James Dolan, was exhausted with the lack of progress in a slow-moving, state-led plan to remake and expand the station, to be called Moynihan Station, which required the Garden’s moving to a new arena in the neighboring Farley Post Office.  read more »

The video above, courtesy of The Observer's Azi Paybarah, features City Council Speaker Christine Quinn expounding this morning on major development projects like the Javits Center expansion and renovation; the stalled Moynihan Station plan; and the Related Companies' West Side rail yards plans.

"I really see all three of them as critically important," Ms. Quinn said. Of Related's rail yards plan specifically: "Now, yesterday, we had a terrific step forward...  read more »

Two of the city’s greatest public-private projects on Manhattan’s West Side have suffered setbacks in recent weeks. First, various government entities have hinting that Moynihan Station—a $900 million project that ballooned into a $14 billion mega-development—will never see the light of day. Then, a deal between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a real estate developer to create office towers, apartment buildings and parks over the rail yards on the far West Side collapsed.  read more »

No one ever said planning for a train station was cheap.

In a recent filing with the SEC, Vornado Realty Trust wrote off $23 million associated with the “abandonment” of the so-called Moynihan East portion of the Penn Station redevelopment plan.

Taken with planning for the expansion of the station into the Farley Post Office across the street, Vornado, led by Steve Roth, has spent $34.2 million, according to the filing:

The three months ended March 31, 2008 includes a $34,200,000 write-off for our share of two joint ventures’ pre-development costs, of which $23,000,000 represents our 50% share of costs in connection with the abandonment of the “arena move”/Moynihan East portions of the Farley project.

Given that Vornado is in a 50/50 partnership with the Related Companies for the project, the numbers reported by Vornado suggest that the two companies have spent nearly $70 million on the project since they were designated developers in 2005!  read more »

Mayor Bloomberg pushed back against a pet initiative of Senator Schumer's today, saying the city “would never agree” to the Port Authority taking over the troubled Moynihan Station project.

Since March, Senator Schumer has been an outspoken proponent of moving the project under the purview of the Port Authority, saying the bi-state agency has the experience and the capability to complete the long-stalled project. Governor Paterson has supported the idea and said the move is likely, though some legislators are against it.

This morning Mr. Schumer tried to push the idea further, saying at a Crain’s New York breakfast that the state’s development agency, which currently has authority over the project, “is not capable of being a major development agency here.”

Shortly after, responding to questions from reporters, Mayor Bloomberg said, effectively, thanks but no thanks.  read more »