It’s been a long, long road, but with just three weeks to go before Madison Square Garden’s operating permit expires and the New York Knicks and Rangers face being locked out of their home arena (not actually going to happen, but fun to imagine nonetheless), there’s a proposal afoot for the city council to set conditions on its renewal. And they’re pretty conditional conditions:
Madison Square Garden would be allowed to sit atop Penn Station for another 10 years under a proposal laid out by city officials on Monday…
“It’s obvious that any improvements to Penn Station will require use of property that is owned by Madison Square Garden, no surprise there,” [Department of City Planning director Dan] Garodnick said. “Department of City Planning believes that MSG will need to convey additional easements or other property interests as necessary to allow for the rehab of Penn Station. And the development of new train entrances to Penn Station. And also a mid-block train hall.”
In essence, James Dolan’s sports and entertainment empire will be given a spare ten-year extension, in exchange for not standing in the way of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s reimagining of the World’s Most Infamous Train Station that will cost $7 billion of money from hmm, haven’t figured that out yet. This is a slightly odd price to demand, but it is a price nonetheless, so it’ll be interesting to see how Dolan responds.
One price that won’t be demanded is the end of MSG’s $947 million-and-counting full property tax break, of which Garodnick said curtly: “We don’t take a position on that. That’s a matter of state tax policy.” Which, yes, it is, but it’s a matter of city budgeting since it’s the city that’s losing the property tax dollars ($42 million this year alone), and city officials have weighed in on it before, but sure, whatever. The price of Madison Square Garden’s continued operation is going to be “stay outta the way of our new train station,” and unless the city council dramatically changes Garodnick’s proposal — the City Planning Commission approved it yesterday, the council should vote in upcoming weeks — for better or worse, that’s what New Yorkers are going to get.