NEW YORK — Amtrak has released a shortlist of three consortia to be considered for the renovation of New York’s Penn Station.
A post on Amtrak’s procurement portal as of Tuesday, Jan. 20, provides a list of three groups and their lead developers:
- Grand Penn Partners [Macquarie]
- Penn Forward Now [Fengate]
- Penn Transformation Partners [Halmar]
The post includes nothing beyond the names of the groups, but the news site Gothamist provides some additional information. It says Grand Penn seeks a neoclassical design and seeks to move Madison Square Garden from its current location above the station, while the Halmar group would leave the arena in place and renovate the station without expanding service. Penn Forward Now, which includes developers Tutor, Parsons, and ARUP, has not shared a design proposal.
An Amtrak spokesman told the Streetsblog NYC site that a master developer will be selected in May and announced in June.
Former New York City Transit President Andy Byford was named last year to lead the station project for Amtrak, following the Trump administration’s move to transfer responsibility for the renovation from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to the Federal Railroad Administration and Amtrak [see “Byford, former New York City Transit head, to oversee …,” Trains.com, May 23, 2025].
The process of selecting a master developer began last October; the timeline announced at that time calls for construction to begin by the end of 2027 [see “Process begins …,” Oct. 31, 2025].
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
And today’s “Daily News” newspaper cut its usual bloody murder coverage to report the complete lack of detail in the 2 proposals submitted to date. Pretty fishy.
One hopes the photo showing a plan retaining MSG is rejected. The key is the year 2028, when the Dolan lease of air-rights expires. Should the “Grand Penn” plan be chosen any time soon, Dolan will have time to move out and build elsewhere. One can be sure the time between now and then will be contentious. How is that for understatement?
And remember the removal of MSG will also mean the removal of the 1100 pilings that have ruined the track level platforms. Also to be hoped for is the thru-running proposal and track# expansion. Byford’s head will be on the block from now on.
Grand Penn is most qualified and should definitely be chosen. Madison Square Garden should return to its namesake and be replaced with a reconstructed Pennsylvania Station with parts of the original structure incorporated.
The disk and tower built by the so-called “Greatest Generation” must go.
Considering that service requirements will continue to increase, Halmar should automatically be disqualified.