It’s a “grand” Penn plan.
Renderings of a Penn Station revamp proposal linked to a big backer of President Trump — that controversially relocates Madison Square Garden — could give New Yorkers a glimpse of the troubled transit hub’s future.
The Grand Penn Community Alliance, boosted by Trump donor Thomas Klingenstein, wants to restore Penn Station’s original façade, create a grand commuter hall, install a giant park and, most notably, move MSG across Seventh Avenue.
The plan is one of competing Penn Station redesign proposals already on the table for the US Department of Transportation to look at now that the Trump administration has taken over the megaproject.
But whether the developer-in-chief Trump picks the Grand Penn plan or opts for a completely new option remains to be seen after Thursday’s shocking announcement that the feds will boot the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from the long-promised revamp.
The only details offered by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and federal officials so far is that the project will be “public-private partnership model” spearheaded by Amtrak, which owns the crumbling, much-hated Midtown transit hub.
Klingenstein donated money for the aptly named Grand Penn proposal – and hyped it in his recent essay “Only Trump Can Make Penn Station Great Again.”
“The plan is bold, but Trump is a bold leader, and New York is a bold city,” he wrote. “Grand Penn would bring some of Trump’s swagger back to the city.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who famously called Penn Station a “hell hole,” sought to break the decades-old curse of New York leaders promising, and failing, to build a new train station.
She backed a plan in 2021 for the MTA to build a 250,000-square-foot Penn Station with a single level and wider entrances on Seventh Avenue for roughly $7 billion. But the wider plan saw many tweaks over the years, as well as rival proposals, notably one by Italian transportation conglomerate ASTM.
The group hired former MTA Chair Pat Foye to pitch a smaller plan that would partially demolish the Hulu Theater owned by Madison Square Garden for a grand new entrance on Eighth Avenue, across from Moynihan Train Hall.
Both plans their detractors, however, with current MTA honcho Janno Lieber opposing the ASTM plan and mercurial MSG owner James Dolan disliking the transit agency’s proposal.
The Grand Penn proposal arose not only as an alternative to both plans, but as a conscious effort to restore the glory of the original Penn Station — the 1963 demolition of which the New York Times deemed a “monumental act of vandalism.”
Commuters offered a mixed reception to Trump’s foray into the Penn Station saga.
Abdoulaye Diallo, a 26-year-old personal trainer at Equinox, was excited about the proposals that showed a grand public plaza.
He was less excited about Trump’s involvement, given the president’s mixed track record as a developer.
“It’s scary just knowing the type of guy Trump is and all the promises he made and never kept up with,” he said. “He always says one thing, presents exactly what people want to hear, and then ends up doing whatever will benefit him.”
“There’s [going to be] a massive Trump sign outside,” he joked.
— Additional reporting by Dorian Geiger
