February 16, 2006
MSG move talks heat up
Quick, what does New York City need more than anything? If you answered "a hole in the head," you're close - instead, it's getting yet another plan for a new sports facility. The New York Times' Charles Bagli reports that the New York Knicks, Rangers, and Liberty are considering relocating Madison Square Garden one block west, to the western half of the Farley Post Office Building, which is currently slated to become the new entrance to Penn Station. The current MSG - the fourth building to hold that name, if you're scoring at home, and the second to be nowhere near Madison Square - would be demolished to make way for office towers.
While the Times reports that MSG is "close to an agreement" with the building's state-sanctioned private developers, Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust, there are a ton of questions about this plan, which first surfaced back in 2004: How would the developers fit a modern sports arena within the walls of a century-old landmark structure that's even narrower than the current Garden? Would wedging in an arena mean ditching the soaring atrium that was supposed to be the new station's centerpiece, or tower over the building's historic facade? ("Madison Square Garden has already eaten one Penn Station," noted Municipal Art Society president Kent Barwick.) And most important, would MSG and the developers demand the sort of tax breaks that have become de rigeur for these sorts of city projects? If nothing else, the Garden is expected to seek to pick up its $11-million-a-year property-tax exemption and carry it across the street.
All this, and a state Empire State Development Corporation hearing on the Mets stadium coming up on February 27. It's an embarrassment of riches, I tell ya.
What an effen waste. Once again you replace a building in perfect condition, or at least what a few small rennovations couldn't fix.... There ain't nothing wrong with MSG IV, the Rangers supporters love it..... Just give us our blue seats back!
Posted by: Bertell ollman on February 16, 2006 01:44 PM
