Pataki Tells Silver He’s Down To Last Chance on Station

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The New York Sun

Governor Pataki says he will trash his $900 million plan to build Moynihan Station if Speaker Sheldon Silver does not back the project today at scheduled vote in Albany.

In a letter yesterday to Mr. Silver, the governor said that if the speaker rejects the project before him today at a meeting of the Public Authorities Control Board, the state would “invalidate the existing award” and start a new station plan from scratch.

That would mean two of the city’s most powerful developers, Vornado Realty Trust and the Related Companies, could be forced to compete again for the project in an open bidding process, and that the state and city would lose some of the government funds it has culled together to remake the Farley Post Office building on Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd streets into a Grand Central-like transit hub.

The governor does not favor that course of action, writing that a new plan “would erode the confidence of our state and federal partners, it will put at risk existing funds, result in the expiration of our option to purchase the Farley Building and will betray the memory of the project namesake.”

The Moynihan Station project seemed to be sailing toward final approval after eight years of planning.Earlier this year, though, the selected developers, Related and Vornado, introduced a more ambitious plan, known as Plan B, to move Madison Square Garden into the west side of the Farley complex from its current location over Penn Station, renovate the existing Penn Station, and build three commercial towers on top of it. Sources familiar with that plan say it would require about $1 billion in public subsidies.

Mr. Silver says he prefers Plan B, and, leveraging his vote on the Public Authorities Control Board, he has delayed the final approval of the state plan for more than two months. Albany Democrats have criticized the governor for attempting to rush through a mediocre Moynihan Station project before he leaves office at the end of the year, a move they say is designed to bolster his legacy.

State officials have said that Mr. Silver has been swayed by Madison Square Garden officials, who are holding out for about $1 billion in public subsidies for the large plan to renovate Penn Station. Madison Square Garden employs lobbyist Patricia Lynch, a former chief of staff to Mr. Silver.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Silver, Eileen Larrabee, said yesterday that the speaker does not agree with many of the statements in Mr. Pataki’s letter.

A spokesman for the developers, publicist Howard Rubenstein, said in a statement that the state could not void the current agreement with Vornado and Related.

“Our development agreement with the State unambiguously remains in effect regardless of the current outcome at PACB,” Mr. Rubenstein said. “Our agreement and our RFP response before it pertain to both phases of the project, and the project must and will continue for the good of all New Yorkers.”

On Friday, during his weekly radio address, Mayor Bloomberg said the state plan should be approved, and that the larger plan faces several significant challenges.

“The city is going to have a very tough time doing Plan B. I hope we get help from the state, but the truth of the matter is that Plan A we could get going right now and it would be great for this city,” Mr. Bloomberg said.


The New York Sun

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