(rshsdepot) NYC's Penn Station now NJT's

[jdent1_@_optonline.net]

November 22, 2005
Rail Station Looks West to Find Tenant 
By PATRICK McGEEHAN

The long-running project to make an expanded Pennsylvania Station into a majestic transit hub in Midtown has finally secured its first and most important tenant: New Jersey's state-operated commuter railroad.

New Jersey Transit said yesterday that it had reached an agreement with the State of New York to be the anchor tenant of Moynihan Station, on the west side of Eighth Avenue at 33rd Street. The deal, which is expected to lead to a 99-year lease by summer that will cost the railroad about $4.8 million a year, would make New Jersey commuters the prime beneficiaries of the $818 million redevelopment of the city's main post office into a palatial train station.

The station, across the avenue from Penn Station, was originally intended to serve as a new home for Amtrak. But Amtrak backed out of plans to move there and the Long Island Rail Road also chose to stay put at Penn Station.

That left Moynihan Station, the pet project of Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, who died in 2003, without a railroad and in jeopardy of becoming Moynihan Mall. New Jersey Transit jumped into the void, grabbing the chance to move its Manhattan operations one block west and gain operational control over a home of its own.

The agreement brings together some odd bedfellows. Charles A. Gargano, who as chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation is one of the most vocal champions of economic development in New York, is linking arms with the operators of an out-of-state transit agency.

"New Jersey Transit is growing and we want the station to be successful," Mr. Gargano said. "If it brings people into New York City, that's what we want, isn't it?"

Mr. Gargano pointed out that New Jersey Transit carries far more passengers into and out of the city - more than 100,000 every weekday - than Amtrak does. And, he added, some of them are New York State residents who live west of the Hudson River.

Most of the money that will be spent to recast the building, which houses the James A. Farley Post Office, will come from the federal government and New York state and city agencies. New Jersey Transit said it would pay about $2.3 million annually to rent 35,000 square feet of the station and as much as $2.5 million a year toward operating costs.

George D. Warrington, the executive director of New Jersey Transit, called the deal a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be able to plant the flag" in the heart of the city. "We have no substantial presence in New York today," he said. "I'm so desperate for space over there."

As the third of three railroads making heavy use of Penn Station, New Jersey Transit has been in a bind. Its customers have been funneled through fewer stairwells to reach the train platforms below the street. Its offices there are so cramped that it has to rent rooms in the Hotel Pennsylvania across Seventh Avenue for its crews to rest between morning and evening runs.

Under the agreement, New Jersey Transit will have operational control of Moynihan Station, though customers of Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road will be able to reach their trains by passing through it and under Eighth Avenue.

The agreement is the second Mr. Warrington has reached with Mr. Gargano about the project. Mr. Warrington was running Amtrak several years ago when he agreed that Amtrak would be the station's anchor tenant. But after Amtrak's board replaced Mr. Warrington with David Gunn, Mr. Gunn broke off the deal.

Amtrak's reversal nearly derailed the Moynihan plan, but yesterday Mr. Gargano said that with Amtrak's future in doubt after the dismissal of Mr. Gunn this month, it may have turned out to be a blessing.

"They missed out, in our opinion," Mr. Gargano said of Amtrak. 

But, he added, "Who knows if Amtrak will be around in the future?"

Maura Moynihan, the senator's daughter who is now working at the Regional Plan Association, said: "This way we have a stable anchor tenant who's a neighbor. It's important to keep the tristate relations going. None of this is a competition."



Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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