Cuomo: Penn-Farley Will Be ‘World Class’

Cuomo: “Government doesn’t know how to build.”

NEW YORK CITY—Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday unveiled the state’s vision for a revamp of the “dirty, dank and dingy” Penn Station, a $1.5-billion project that will also entail the creation of a combined 700,000 square feet of office and retail to the new station’s west side. The governor said a partnership of Skanska AB, the Related Group and Vornado Realty Trust would redevelop the James A. Farley Post Office across the street from the nation’s busiest passenger facility while also rebuilding the narrow corridors within the 48-year-old station.

Originally intended to accommodate Long Island Rail Road commuters and no more, Penn Station now serves three railroad systems—Amtrak and NJ Transit as well as the LIRR—and sees 650,000 rail users daily. In its current state, Cuomo told an Association for a Better New York audience, it’s the railroad equivalent of LaGuardia Airport, the air facility that Vice President Joe Biden likened to a Third World airport. “It is not what New York is all about,” Cuomo said.