The Fifth Madison Square Garden?
By Amy Fernandez
For years, it’s been rumored that Penn Station is poised for a drastically needed makeover. If you are not familiar with NYC geography, it’s the giant train station situated beneath Madison Square Garden, a less than ideal arrangement that has been around since 1968.
Throughout that time, it’s been a sore point for New Yorkers. Penn Station currently ranks as the country’s largest transportation hub, servicing New Jersey Transit, the Long Island Railroad, Amtrak, and the NYC subway system. It’s volume of daily traffic outgrew this space years ago, but renovation plans are pretty limited because of MSG perched on top of it.
The present Penn Station, aptly known as The Dungeon, is a sad remnant of one of the city’s greatest landmarks. At the turn of the 20th century, its predecessor was constructed to replace the growing eyesore of multiple railroad terminals, factories, slaughterhouses, etc. of Manhattan’s Westside. No expense was spared designing and building the magnificent Beaux Art station of pink granite. Completed in 1910, it was widely regarded as an architectural masterpiece.
Outrage sparked by the demolition of this beloved landmark prompted New York’s architectural preservation movement. Its greatest achievement, the dazzling renovated Grand Central Terminal across town only emphasized Penn Station’s shortcomings. A grassroots movement to redevelop and expand Penn Station picked up steam throughout the 1990s as gentrification swept through surrounding neighborhoods. Twice it’s been derailed, first by 9/11, and in 2008 by the real estate bust, but advocates aren’t going away.
This bad penny resurfaced on the heels of Westminster. On February 15, 2013, Manhattan Community Board 5 voted unanimously against renewing MSG’s operating permit in perpetuity as its owners had requested. Instead, they proposed a 10-year lease, making it clear that the World’s Most Famous Arena shouldn’t get too comfy in its present location.
MSG’s owners argued that this limit threatens the arena’s viability and emphasized their recently completed $1 billion makeover, which disrupted Westminster for two years. The resulting smaller venue led to Westminster’s decision to move most of the show to the Piers last year.
When asked by The Canine Chronicle, Westminster spokesman David Frei had no official comment, but noted “there has been a lot of talk for a lot of years about various things like this, and most of the time it just eventually goes away. If it were to happen, then we might have something to say then, but it doesn’t really make any sense for us to speculate on this topic now.”
The fact that MSG has successfully relocated in the past has springloaded arguments in favor of the plan. However, many city officials conceded that 10 years is insufficient time for owners to relocate the venue and recoup their substantial renovation investment. We got the next installment May 22 when the City Planning Commission voted unanimously to renew the now expired lease for only 15 years.
This battle is far from over, but it’s speculated that Westminster may eventually relocate the entire show to the Piers. So far, the new site has received mixed reviews. Exhibitors loved it, vendors not so much. Spectators found the split venue confusing.
Only time will tell if MSG or Westminster makes another move. The Garden has relocated four times in its history. The first big move in 1880 was capped with a fatal construction accident less than a week before the show, killing four people including the show manager, leaving the show chairman seriously injured. But the show went on, and no matter what happens, I’m sure that it will continue.
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