(Newsday posted the following article by Chuck Bennett on its website on June 22.)
NEW YORK — Private developers and state officials signed a multimillion dollar agreement Wednesday on a timetable to convert the old James Farley Post Office into a modern extension of Pennsylvania Station.
The Related Companies and Vornando Realty Trust will oversee the $850 million transformation of the historic Beaux- Arts postal complex into a train station serving the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit.
Eventually, the station will take up to one-third of all passengers using the existing Penn Station.
“We are expecting to start work within the station itself by fall of this year,” Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corp., told amNewYork. The station is scheduled to be open for business by 2012.
The private development team declined to comment.
Before work can begin, the project needs formal approval from Albany, although that is not expected to be a major hurdle.
The agreement does not include controversial plans to construct a new Madison Square Garden in the Farley Annex, located in the rear of the building between Eighth and Ninth avenues and West 31st and West 33rd streets.
“The only plan we are working on is the Moynihan Station project,” Gargano said. He added that he shared concerns with some civic groups that an arena could overwhelm the station, but said he hasn’t seen any proposals on the new MSG yet.