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Friday, March 29, 2024

Is NYC’s Penn Station District the Next Tech Hub?

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By: Desiree Coates

Vornado Realty Trust is trying to bring high-tech companies to the so-called Penn District near Madison Square Garden.

The firm, owned by real estate mogul Steven Roth, wants to use the same formula that has worked at Hudson Yards, according to many. Vornado is reportedly prepared to spend upwards of $2 billion to redevelop more than five-million square feet of property there.

In fact, Roth is said to be working to convince Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. to become part of his project. It figures to be an uphill battle, given the fact that the area – Penn Station, a mélange of rail tunnels – generally makes New Yorkers hold their noses.

“The destruction more than 50 years ago of the old, majestic Penn Station in favor of a subterranean warren with low ceilings and rathole train platforms, to accommodate the home of the perennially disappointing New York Knicks, cast a pall on the area,” Crain’s New York Business recently wrote. “Today it’s ringed by panhandlers, drug abusers, bland bank branches, nondescript pharmacies and steady streams of travelers—an estimated 650,000 a day—who make the station the busiest transit center in the Western Hemisphere.”

Paul Amrich, vice chairman of real estate firm CBRE Group Inc., told Crain’s that “With the strength of the economy and the war for jobs and talent, it feels like this is probably the time that that part of town finally gets transformed.”

The ancient station now lies along Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and Empire Corridor, as well as serves New Jersey Transit and Long Island Rail Road commuter trains.

Penn Station opened September 8, 1910, for Long Island Rail Road trains via the new tunnel under the East River. Serving more than 600,000 commuter rail and Amtrak passengers a day, it is the busiest passenger transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere. Pennsylvania Railroad trains began using it on November 27, supplementing and eventually replacing the old New York City-area terminal across the Hudson River at Exchange Place in Jersey City. The name was adopted by the PRR on March 1, 1909. The opening of the Hell Gate Bridge on April 1, 1917, brought New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad intercity trains into Penn Station.

Vornado owns more than 20 million square feet of Manhattan office and retail space, plus stakes in hotels and malls, according to Forbes. “In 2014 the company built the world’s largest LED advertising sign in Times Square. Vornado owns 2 buildings alongside Donald Trump: 1290 Avenue of the Americas in New York City and 555 California Street in San Francisco.” Roth’s wife, Daryl, is a Broadway and off-Broadway producer.

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