New Penn Plan: 2 West Side Pols Unveil Proposal to Save Block South of Station from Teardown

New York State’s plan to redevelop the neighborhood around Penn Station should be drastically revamped to provide more housing, fewer offices, more green space—and to block an expansion of Penn Station to the south, two West Side legislators said.

“We need a thriving, beautiful 24/7 work, live, play neighborhood for all new Yorkers,” declared the neighborhood’s Assembly member, Tony Simone.

He was joined at a rally and news briefing outside Penn Station by City Council member Erik Bottcher, as well as neighborhood residents and leaders of community boards 4 and 5.

“We are talking to the governor and both houses to reopen the [General Project Plan] and engage the community on a housing-first plan,” said Simone. “The governor has the power to reopen the GPP now.”

The block south of the Penn Station/ Madison Square Garden complex runs from West 30th to West 31st streets and from Seventh to Eighth avenues. The block houses St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, the Taboo strip club, Tracks Sports Bar, the Molly Wee Pub, the Gardenia Italian deli, a Meyer’s parking garage, and dozens of other small businesses and fast-food joints.

The GPP, or General Project Plan, was created by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo to use the state’s development powers to expedite the construction of 10 new office towers around Penn Station and siphon some of the tax revenue to fund the renovation and expansion of the station.

“That’s an outdated plan,” said Simone. The biggest change, of course, was wrought by COVID, which radically disrupted New York’s office market.

“For too long this area has sat in waiting for office development that has not materialized—and won’t for years,” said Simone. “It’s time for a new plan that reflects the reality of New York City today. By amending the State proposal, we can create a true mixed-use neighborhood that combines affordable housing, new green space, and hotels to bolster our city’s livability and improve public safety. I look forward to working with Governor Hochul to unlock the future of Midtown and reimagine Penn for the next generation,”

Simone said that it would be far faster to amend the GPP, rather than scrapping it and going back to the city’s standard land-use review. “It will be quicker to get shovels in the ground to create the housing we need,” he said.

The state agency that oversees the GPP, The Empire State Development Corporation, said: “Governor Hochul remains committed to her vision for a new and improved Penn Station, anchored by hundreds of new homes, seamless access to transit, and major improvements to the surrounding streets and sidewalks. The Governor will continue to work with all stakeholders to deliver a station worthy of New York while advancing her bold plan for swift action to address the state’s housing shortage.”

It was not clear whether the ESD statement was cracking the door open to revising the GPP or drawing a line in the sand with its reference to hundreds of new units of housing, shortly after Simone had said he believed there could be “thousands” of new housing units.

Housing versus office development is one of several flashpoints in Simone’s proposal, which he said was a concept for discussion, not a specific plan.

Another flashpoint involved the expansion of Penn Station. Amtrak, which owns the station, has said that it needs to double train capacity by the 2030s, with completion of the new Gateway tunnels from New Jersey under the Hudson.

One proposal, often thought of as the favorite of Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, is to build a new station immediately to the south, requiring the demolition of the block between Seventh and Eighth avenues between 31st and 30th streets, often referred to by its tax designation, Block 780, filled with small businesses.

Simone said this block should be removed from the GPP and that the railroads would “have to come up with a different plan.”

The railroads have said the expansion to the south is one of several proposals they are considering. Others include expansion to the north or east, or a rebuilding of tracks and platforms within the station’s present footprint, or close to it, to run more trains through the station more quickly.

Amtrak did not immediately respond to Simone’s proposal.

Another likely point of contention was the proposal’s call for a Bryant Park-style green space on the large plot that until recently was the site of the famed Pennsylvania Hotel on Seventh Avenue, across from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station.

Vornado Realty, which owns the site and much of the other property within the GPP, has said it wants to build a super-tall luxury office tower on the site. Vornado tore down the Pennsylvania Hotel but, for the moment, has left the site vacant save for a billboard and occasional fashion shows.

Vornado said it declined to comment on Simone’s proposal.

Last month, the CEO of Vornado, Steve Roth, said the Pennsylvania Hotel site was “down to the ground and ready to go.” Although, he added, the start of construction would have to await lower interest rates, higher office prices and, perhaps, greater confidence that President Trump’s tariff plans would not drive up the price of steel.

Roth said that while offices were the core of the plan for the site, he was open to considering apartments as part of a tower there.

Simone said in a statement that his proposal was supported by Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.

“The current General Project Plan was signed in order to fund a new, state-of-the-art train terminal at Penn Station by diverting property taxes from to-be-constructed office towers,” Simone said.

He noted that with office construction stalled since COVID, Hochul announced she had “decoupled” the financing of Penn Station from the GPP, although there has since been confusion over exactly what was decoupled from what.

In court, a lawyer representing the state argued that the governor’s decoupling statement only applied to the urgent need to reconstruct the station’s train hall and waiting areas, a circle of hell for many commuters, and not to the separate plans by Amtrak and the commuter railroads to double the capacity of the station in the 2030s.

That position was presented by the state in a case brought by residents of Block 780 seeking to have the GPP thrown out. But the case was rejected by New York’s first circuit, and the GPP survived.

The expansion of Penn Station and the GPP are separate in the sense that the railroads could still seek to acquire Block 780, or other land, for an expansion, whether it is in the state’s redevelopment plan or not.

Nevertheless, a principal opponent of expanding the station’s footprint, Samuel Turvey of ReThink NYC, welcomed the idea of removing Block 780 from the GPP.

“Removing the potential demolition of Block 780 from the GPP is absolutely the right thing to do and will now isolate the railroads’ quixotic and intransigent desire to chloroform Block 780 by removing any suggestion that New York State supports this action,” Turvey said.

He also praised the proposed shift to more of a mix of commercial, residential, and recreational uses.

“Amending the GPP to promote more mixed uses, including affordable housing, all while eliminating eminent domain from the Penn GPP’s toolkit, will allow breathing room for more nuanced community-driven planning to take place,” he said.