Get ready for Round 2!
The New York City Council granted Madison Square Garden’s controversial owner James Dolan just a five-year license to operate the “World’s Most Famous Arena” at full capacity Thursday — in an opening salvo of the battle over the complex’s future.
The extension was approved by a unanimous vote of 48-0 — but is the shortest-ever granted by lawmakers, who have signaled throughout the process they want Dolan to move the Garden from its current location atop Pennsylvania Station to make way for badly needed improvements to the major transit hub.
“By granting Madison Square Garden a five-year special permit, we’re setting the clock that will help bring all the stakeholders to the table to fix Penn Station now,” said Councilman Erik Bottcher (D-Manhattan), whose district includes the West Side complex and transit hub.
“For the first time in decades, we have the opportunity to truly create a great Penn Station,” he added. “We cannot afford to wait any longer.”
The MTA, which is leading the effort to rebuild Penn Station, was not immediately able to comment.
Bottcher pushed for the five-year extension over a proposal from the City Planning Commission — that was backed by the MTA — that supported a longer 10-year extension but imposed requirements that MSG cooperate with the railroads on the reconstruction.
“Recognizing that the decision on which plan goes forward is not ours to make, we look forward to collaborating with all key stakeholders on improving Penn Station,” said a spokeswoman for MSG.
The MTA offered similar sentiments in a statement.
“Under Governor Hochul’s leadership Penn Station passengers are already experiencing improvements from the new LIRR Concourse, and MTA will continue to work with our railroad partners and all community stakeholders to deliver the Penn Station that New Yorkers deserve,” said agency spokesman Aaron Donovan.
The fight above ground is a prelude to an even bigger one below — how best to fix and expand Penn Station.
The future of Madison Square Garden and Penn Station have been interlocked ever since the Pennsylvania Railroad sold off the land in the 1960s in a desperate bid to shore up its finances — resulting in the demolition of the treasured McKim, Mead, and White train hall, the construction of MSG and the transformation of the nation’s busiest rail hub into today’s hated claustrophobic warren.
The complex’s system of support beams has proved to be both a blessing and a curse: The steel that holds up Penn Station’s underground concourse levels and, above it, MSG and its surrounding plaza is anchored into the train platforms below.
This has compounded endless efforts to address Penn Station’s biggest shortcomings — the narrow train platforms and stairwells that slow down boarding and exiting trains and pose a potential safety risk.
Rearranging the tracks to widen the platforms would require moving the columns that keep the whole complex upright.
A recently completed MTA study determined that it would be possible to rework the middle portions of the complex, but that completely addressing the issue would be infeasible as long as MSG remains on top.
Dolan has repeatedly said that he has no interest in moving the arena — nor have backers of the relocation identified potential sites where it might go.
It’s a collision of politics, egos, and engineering that the MTA, New Jersey Transit, and Amtrak are attempting to solve with money — in amounts measured in the billions, with proposals that have triggered their own pitched battles.
The railroads have backed a $7 billion program that would rebuild and consolidate Penn Station’s split concourses into a single level with high ceilings and a soaring new midblock train hall that would allow sun into the complex for the first time since the original structure was demolished.
An Italian firm jumped into the contest — with quiet assistance from Dolan’s MSG — with their own $12.5 billion proposal to rebuild and operate the station for 50 years.
A plan from developer ASTM North America also includes consolidating the concourses to a single level but would swap the dramatic midblock hall for a new entrance on 8th Avenue, where MSG’s smaller Hulu Theater currently sits.
The company has acknowledged that buying the Hulu theater from Dolan would likely net the billionaire a $500 million payout.
Meanwhile, ASTM has come under scrutiny for putting former MTA chairman Pat Foye at the center of their pitch to elected officials — a move that ethics watchdogs have said likely violates state conflict of interest laws, The Post revealed earlier this year.
Neither proposal would fix the long-standing capacity issues at Penn Station, which can handle just 24 trains per hour passing under the Hudson River.
The railroads have proposed demolishing the block immediately south — bounded by 30th and 31st streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues — to build a new train station that would be connected to the existing Penn Station.
Neighborhood activists on the West Side have fought back hard against the new train terminal that would be predominately used by NJ Transit, which the railroads have estimated could cost $13 billion.
