NEW YORK CITY-City Council Speaker and leading mayoral candidate Christine Quinn Wednesday sent a letter to Madison Square Garden Co. president and CEO Hank Ratner supporting the idea of a fixed-term 10-year special permit for the venue to continue operations in its current space.
The decade-long agreement would allow the facility to buy time while stakeholders create and execute a plan for the future of Penn Station, MSG and the surrounding area. To reach that goal, in her letter Quinn calls for the formation of a commission for a 21st century Penn Station that would be charged with two tasks: finding a new home, within Manhattan, for a state-of-the-art Madison Square Garden; and creating a Penn Station that better suits the needs of the hundreds of thousands of current and future travelers who pass through it every day.
She notes in the letter that she understand it will be a logistical and financial hardship to move the Garden but “the Garden has moved in the past and can do so again.”
Earlier in the day, Garden officials attended a Council meeting and reiterated their wish to gain a new, permanent special permit that would allow the building to continue operating in Midtown, according to Crain's New York Business. The building's team included New York Knicks hall of fame member Walt Frazier and uber-Knicks fan Spike Lee, the film director, but some Council members weren't star struck.
Subcommittee chair Mark Weprin and Leroy Comrie, the deputy majority leader and chair of the land use committee, were of a similar mind as Quinn, with Comrie calling for “checks and balances” on the perpetuity idea, according to Crain's.
Others though did express concern over a possible relocation, Crain's reports. "What about the $200 million in spending the arena brings to the city each year?" Staten Island councilman Vincent Ignizio asked.
Brooklyn councilwoman Diana Reyna, meanwhile, compared the fight to the one over Ebbetts Field that eventually led the Dodgers to leave for Los Angeles, Crain's says. “Government made the mistake of inaction once before,” she asserted. “We can't do it again."
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Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
