Madison Square Garden's Controversial 5-Year Permit OK'd By Council

CHELSEA, NY - Madison Square Garden will remain on Eighth Avenue at least for the next five years.

The New York City Council approved the 22,000-seat arena’s contested five-year permit "with modifications" Thursday and referred the item to the mayor's City Planning Commission.

The five-year permit is the shortest in Madison Square Garden's history. Its 10-year permit expired earlier this summer; before that, the Garden held a 50-year permit that was approved when the old Penn Station was razed in the 1960s.

But the fate of the famed arena after 2028 remains to be seen. Council member Erik Bottcher, whose jurisdiction includes Madison Square Garden, says its latest lease on life starts the clock to fix the arena’s aging downstairs neighbor, Penn Station.

In a recent interview with WNYC, Bottcher called the demolition of the original Penn Station “one of the greatest architectural and civic crimes of the last century" and described the current transit hub a “drab, confusing subterranean maze.”

“The Council cannot determine the long-term viability of an arena at this location,” Bottcher said last month. “Therefore five years is an appropriate term for this special permit.”

Some ideas floated, albeit briefly, have included a relocation of the arena altogether. At a recent community board meeting, a staff member from Madison Square Garden's ownership team noted a few alternative locations to relocate the arena: a new space in Hudson Yards, perhaps, or the vacant Hotel Pennsylvania, per Crain's New York Business.

“For the first time in decades, the opportunity to create a truly great Penn Station is at our fingertips,” Bottcher said in a statement to Patch Thursday. “We cannot afford to wait any longer; the time for action is now.”

The five-year permit is a far cry from the permanent permit that James Dolan, the arena’s owner, sought approval for this year. The council-approved permit is also only half of what the City Planning Commission, notably controlled by the mayor, recommended earlier this summer.

In June, the MTA, Amtrak and NJ Transit called the arena's loading operations "incompatible" with a Penn Station renovation; the entities called for MSG to "collaborate on property swaps," The Real Deal reported.

“A three-year permit gives them an opportunity to do a deal for what is needed by the MTA and Amtrak for a new, improved Penn Station,” Sen. Liz Krueger told the outlet. “If we give them a longer permit, there is no pressure.”

Others have defended longer permits for the historic venue: “It is city planning’s view that New Yorkers cannot wait for those plans for Penn Station to be finalized in order to benefit from these significant improvements to the area around MSG,” Dan Garodnick, director of the Department of City Planning, said in July.

“We are disappointed in the City Council’s land use committees’ decision to limit Madison Square Garden’s special permit to 5 years," Madison Square Garden said in a statement last month. "A short-term special permit is not in anyone’s best interest and undermines the ability to immediately revamp Penn Station and the surrounding area. The committees have done a grave disservice to New Yorkers today, in a shortsighted move that will further contribute to the erosion of the City – that’s true now and will be true five years from now.”

One group, ReThink Penn Station, is suggesting a massive overhaul of the train tracks below to facilitate what they call a true regional rail system, all while greatly increasing the currently tapped-out capacity. Both of those elements would require moving Madison Square Garden to its fifth home in five decades.

"As invested members of our community, we are committed to improving Penn Station and the surrounding area," a spokesperson for MSG Entertainment told Patch Thursday, "and we continue to collaborate closely with a wide range of stakeholders to advance this shared goal."