Time’s running out on Madison Square Garden’s 10-year operating permit — but owner James Dolan doesn’t seem concerned and the activists who dream of demolishing the arena to make way for a new Penn Station may be thwarted once again.
Community Board 5, which covers Midtown, says that the single biggest impediment to a true renovation of the dingy, low-ceilinged train station is getting rid of the huge stadium on top of it — for which Dolan has long paid no property taxes.
Last month, the MTA unveiled plans for two possible ways of renovating Penn Station that would not require moving MSG. One proposes remaking the station into a single-level facility; the other would keep both levels but create an atrium in a former Amtrak waiting area.
The board, however, supports architect Vishaan Chakrarbarti’s so-called “Miracle on 34th Street” eco-friendly plan, which calls for building a new MSG on 34th Street across from Macy’s and repurposing the existing arena into a “safe, affordable and light-filled” Penn Station that gets the 880,000 daily travelers “out of the basement.”
But Dolan shows no signs of budging and technically he doesn’t have to. Expiration of the current operating permit doesn’t mean he has to physically leave MSG, which he owns.
And even some activists who would love to see MSG gone from its Penn Station perch admit privately that talk of moving it has gone on for decades without fruition and nothing is likely to change between now and 2023.
“We can’t afford to pass on the once-in-a generation federal infrastructure opportunity under President Biden, and deny New Yorkers a world-class Penn Station while a few planners continue their 30-year-long debate about moving MSG,” Abbey Collins, a spokesperson for the MTA told The Post.
MSG was granted a 50-year operating permit in 1963 and the Dolans asked for a permit in perpetuity in 2013. Instead, they were given 10 years to move. A source familiar with the situation told The Post that the Dolans will ask again for a permit in perpetuity in 2023.
Dolan also enjoys a sweetheart tax deal, gifted by then-Mayor Ed Koch in 1982, which has MSG paying zero in property taxes — while owners of one-bedroom apartments in the Midtown neighborhood are forking over $14,000 a year.
Koch signed off on the plan because at the time a lot of sports teams (the Devils, the Giants and the Nets) had moved to New Jersey, the Jets would move two years later, and the Knicks and Rangers were threatening to cross the Hudson.
“It’s a total tax boondoggle,” said state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, who has sponsored two bills in recent years aimed at repealing MSG’s tax exemption, which otherwise would have poured about $550 million into city coffers over the years. “It was never meant to go on forever and it makes no sense.”
But Dolan doesn’t seem worried. Dolan’s Cablevision company has been the biggest donor to Gov. Cuomo over the years, having given $552,900 to his campaign, according to Followthemoney.org. And the Madison Square Garden Political Action Committee has also donated to seven sitting City Council members as well as two Council candidates, as well as city comptroller and mayoral hopefuls, according to city records.
Dolan told The Post through a spokesperson that he supports Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to improve Penn Station and the area.
But that plan, a massive project that involves building 10 skyscrapers around the station, is controversial. Lawmakers recently managed to limit $1.3 billion in legislative funding to transportation projects only in an effort to prevent taxpayer money from being used to fund the skyscrapers.
Dolan’s spokeswoman declined comment on MSG tax breaks or efforts to force the move of the arena.