New York City's new Penn Station includes affordable housing units

New York City’s new Penn Station will include more affordable housing units and open spaces. Those items are detailed in a letter state economic development officials sent Monday to Manhattan local, state and federal lawmakers.

Empire State Development President and CEO Hope Knight and James Katz, deputy secretary to Gov. Kathy Hochul for economic development and workforce, sent the letter to U.S Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn Maloney; state Sens. Brad Hoylman, Robert Jackson and Liz Krueger; Assemblymember Richard Gottfried; Borough President Mark Levine; and New York City Councilmember Erik Bottcher confirming details of changes the state has made to a project that could cost as much as $10 billion to revitalize the commuter hub and surrounding area in Midtown Manhattan.

It also comes a week after Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a joint agreement on financing the megaproject without raising state taxes or commuter fares and a city-state governing venture to oversee the planning and implementation of improvements.

The revitalization plan includes the state selling development rights on area properties to private developers and collecting payments in lieu of taxes on the new developments.

Last November, Hochul announced the new rail hub would have a single-level train hall that would be easier for commuters using the station to navigate. At the same time, she pledged to cut down on commercial developments near Penn Station, add more rent-restricted units and provide up to eight acres of open space. That includes a 30,000 square-foot plaza comparable to Rockefeller Plaza.

Monday’s commitments include increasing the number of affordable housing units from 163, as it was in November, to 648. That would make more than a third of the housing units either rent-restricted or available for other supportive services. Another 60 affordable units would be available nearby by redeveloping a correctional facility on West 20th Street.

Knight and Katz wrote that the governor believes “new modern office complexes” near a new Penn Station would fulfill the state’s sustainability goals. However, they added that all New Yorkers should be able to benefit from the project.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has further demonstrated that homes and places of work should coexist in our business districts as we continue to ‘write the script’ on the future of remote and flexible work arrangements,” they wrote.

In addition, the state pledges $50 million from project revenues to implement the first projects the joint city-state venture announces.

The state also plans to boost social services for the homeless residing in the area.

“This plan to reimagine Penn Station will not only deliver a modern, state-of-the-art train station to New York commuters; it will transform the surrounding neighborhood into a vibrant, accessible live-work community,” Hochul said in a statement.

The Penn Staton revitalization project comes as the state is also working with New Jersey on the Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project, which includes building a new rail tunnel that will serve Amtrak trains and eventually expand rail traffic in the northeast.