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[NYguy]

https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2025/04...ted-by-andrew-cuomo-is-still-standing-2/

The block Cuomo tried to flatten is still standing
Why West 31st Street has outlasted NY’s governors


By Erik Engquist
April 16, 2025

For developers, buying and bulldozing properties to build something better takes cunning, creativity and cash. Gary Barnett is adept at it, and he has lots of company. Al Laboz, for example, has been assembling a Downtown Brooklyn site since 1996.

Politicians don’t have that kind of patience; their next election is never more than a few years away. The government, however, can use eminent domain to purchase properties for fair market value even if the owners don’t want to sell.

That makes the story of Block 780, across West 31st Street from Penn Station, quite interesting.

When the Cuomo administration in 2019 planned to buy it to build a train terminal with tracks below, I had The Real Deal’s research desk create a spreadsheet about the properties. The idea was to write a David-versus-Goliath feature about old-school building owners battling a powerful governor.

All the transit agencies involved remain hopeful that a Penn Station extension will eventually be built, allowing the new and old tunnels to be used to their full potential. That has not been lost on the owners of Block 780, who have been lying low but keeping their lawyers’ numbers handy.

….. the flattening of Block 780 for a south terminal might yet happen. The extended pause has bought time for through-running advocates to build support for their idea, which they have been doing with events, policy papers and press releases. A recent one unveiled a new design by Alexandros Washburn to move Madison Square Garden and create a gorgeous green space.
Former Silverstein Properties executive Janno Lieber, who now runs the MTA, has been trying to stop the activists in their tracks. And now their old foe, Cuomo, is poised to return as mayor. He wouldn’t have the pull he had as governor, but could still give the terminal project a boost.

Somehow, the writer of this piece seems oblivious to the fact that there is nothing the state will or can do until the federal environmental review gives the go ahead.