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.

The Farley post office, widely seen as an architectural twin of the original Pennsylvania Station, has figured in redevelopment plans since 1996, when what was then known as Moynihan Station was proposed. However, Cuomo said, that proposal from 20 years ago—which continued the advocacy of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY)—suffered from both “conceptual flaws and implementation flaws.”

Originally, only Amtrak was to relocate into the Farley station, although its daily traffic is only 30,000 passengers, or less than 5% of the total. Moreover, that '96 proposal called for government to take the initiative in construction. “Government doesn't know how to build,” said Cuomo.

Under the current proposal, both Amtrak and the LIRR will occupy the new Moynihan Train Hall. The development partnership will cover $600 million of the cost, with another $500 million coming from the Empire State Development Corp. and the remainder to be paid for by Amtrak and government.

“The new train hall that we're building will be magnificent and world-class,” said Cuomo. Art 250,000 square feet, it will be twice as large as the current Penn Station, and also 20,000 square feet bigger than Grand Central Terminal.

Cuomo told the ABNY audience that the Penn-Farley complex was just one component of a $100-billion commitment to rebuild the New York City metropolitan area's infrastructure. Other projects currently underway include the East Side Access project being undertaken by the LIRR and the replacement of the outmoded Tappan Zee Bridge to the north of the city.

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Cuomo: Penn-Farley Will Be 'World Class'

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