Madison Square Garden won't move under new Penn Station plan picked by Trump administration

The Trump administration has picked a design for a reimagined Penn Station that would largely leave Madison Square Garden at its current location, but knock down a theater there to build a grand new station entrance on Eighth Avenue, officials said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Amtrak, which owns Penn, announced Wednesday that it had selected the proposal by Penn Transformation Partners, formed by Halmar International, a subsidiary of Italian infrastructure firm ASTM and the Skanska development company, to design and build a "brand-new, world-class station" serving about 600,000 travelers a day, including on the Long Island Rail Road.

The vision includes plans for a "grand entrance" to a new train hall on Eighth Avenue, the replacement of cramped walkways with "open, beautiful concourses," expanded track capacity and the introduction of "limited through-running" which could mean that westbound LIRR trains would continue past Penn, across the tunnel, and into New Jersey.

In selecting Halmar, which submitted its proposal under the name Penn Transformation Partners, Duffy, in a statement, said "we are one step closer to delivering a world-class travel hub that daily commuters and travelers have dreamed of for decades."

Among the various proposals submitted to project officials were ones that would have required the demolition and relocation of Madison Square Garden, which has sat on top of Penn Station since the 1960s, making for cramped quarters and limited natural light in the 116-year-old transit hub.

The Trump administration — which seized control of the project from New York State and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in 2025 and gave it to Amtrak to run — ultimately decided to leave MSG where it is, but the plan calls for the removal of the 5,000-seat Infosys Theater at Madison Square Garden to make space for the new Eighth Avenue entrance and train hall.

The Halmar plan would also allow natural light and extra space into Penn by building a multilevel, glass-encased "podium" that would surround MSG.

"We congratulate Penn Transformation Partners on being selected to redevelop Penn Station following Amtrak’s process and look forward to working with all parties as their plan advances toward a new Penn Station," a spokesperson for MSG said in a statement to Newsday. 

Although no official price tag has been put on the effort, Duffy has said rebuilding Penn Station will cost about $8 billion. Construction is expected to begin in 2027, project officials said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul in a statement called the selection of a master developer "another important step in the Penn reconstruction process" and said she would thoroughly review the plan in the coming weeks. 

"To be successful, this project must accomplish two things: dramatically improve the experience for every rider who passes through Penn Station, from the A train to the Acela, while protecting the record performance of the LIRR and ensuring the costs are not borne by New York commuters or taxpayers. I will accept nothing less," she said. 

Sam Turvey of ReThinkNYC, a firm that submitted one of the proposals not selected, said there was "no shortage of highly competent and inspired teams competing for more than a decade to create a Penn Station worthy of New York," crediting the leadership of Amtrak for ending the uncertainty that had stalled the project for years. 

Carlo A. Scissura, president and CEO of the New York Building Congress, in a statement also applauded Wednesday's announcement touting the "economic windfall and thousands of new jobs that a new Penn Station will bring. Let’s roll!"

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said Wednesday that the state and transit authority have been largely kept in the dark about plans for Penn since the Trump administration and Amtrak took over the plan.

“We have made clear that we are fully prepared to participate, but we have not been allowed to do so to date,” Lieber said.

Lieber said the MTA has a lease for another 130 years for use of the Long Island Rail Road concourse at Penn, and will not sign off on any attempt to alter the $700 million in improvements made there in recent years. "You can't tear up our area or anything that affects our area, full stop," he said.

Lieber also noted that the MTA’s original plan for Penn, which would have entailed raising ceilings and building a tall, skylit atrium, would have been “a lot cheaper” than the $8 billion price tag Duffy has mentioned.

The MTA was dubious of the Halmar plan when it was initially released in 2023, criticizing it for paying to acquire the theater, rather than pushing MSG to help fund improvements at the station.