Governor Kathy Hochul left her proposal for the redevelopment of the Penn Station area – which might cost $306 billion to totally construct – in her State of the Union address, encouraging critics who need a less expensive and fewer disruptive technique to create a latest station.
Penn’s plan also didn’t appear in the governor’s 267-page “Achieving the New York Dream” program of “147 Daring Initiatives” that was released in conjunction with the speech.
The “Dream” list included many transit and MTA-related projects, akin to the Metro-North Penn Station Access project to construct latest stations in the Bronx. Since the whole point of the so-called “Empire Station Complex” is supposedly to create a greater Penn Station, its omission from Hochula’s program was bizarre.
Attorney Chuck Weinstock, who represents neighborhood groups and others against the proposal, quipped, “She could also be the only person in the state who is not talking about it. Possibly he’s starting to grasp that nobody wants that.
Hochul spokesman Justin Henry didn’t explain why she didn’t mention the project in her speech or in the “Dream” report. He said, “Rebuilding Penn Station is a priority for the Hochula administration, as reflected in the aggressive rebuilding schedule and continued, sustained progress on this project since Governor Hochula took office.”
The plan, which she inherited from her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, called for the demolition of several blocks of allegedly “dilapidated” properties in the Penn Station/Madison Square Garden area, including occupied apartment buildings and historic churches, to make way for eight giant office towers, most of which it’s to be built by the Vornado Realty Trust.
![Penn Station plans](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/penn-11.jpg?w=1024)
![Penn station plan](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/penn-2.jpg?w=1024)
But its prospects have dimmed after a recent remark by Vornado CEO and Penn developer Steven Roth that this isn’t the right time for brand spanking new development from the ground up.
The last black eye was a revelation reported in Crain’sthat the Empire State Development agency approved it without even taking a look at the cost and revenue estimates of Ernst & Young, whom ESD hired to interrupt the numbers.
Weinstock called the state’s admission that it ignored the data “condemnation.”
![](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/penn-9.jpg?w=1024)
Meanwhile, a trio of distinguished architects will show alternative plans on January 26 at Cooper Union. They’re the head of the PAU company, Vishaan Chakrabarti, freelance architect Alexandros Washburn and the director of Atelier and Co., Richard Cameron.
Washburn’s proposal was first shown in The Post in December.
On a lighter note, a Crain’s other story in a project lawsuit dug up emails between ESD, Vornado and their spin doctors from two different PR firms on how one can do that weaken The Post’s “negative” reach.
“We expect we have now [Steve Cuozzo] positioned” to report one story I used to be working on as “drawing the battle lines”, an unidentified person from PR firm Berlin Rosen showed off Vornado suits and former ESD official Holly Leicht in August 2021.
My position since then: I even have characterised Hochul’s plan as “bullshit”, “terrible”, “corrupt”, “fraudulent” and “a nightmare”.