With his record breaking 36 sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden, Billy Joel seems to own Eighth Avenue between West 31st and West 33rd Streets. And moving the Piano Man—even a few blocks away—wouldn’t be economically sound.
A report released today by the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management suggests relocating the arena to a nearby location would cost upwards of $5 billion, take a particularly long time and become an urban planner’s worst nightmare. The findings are part of the think tank’s study of a recently proposed overhaul of Pennsylvania Station and its extension to the James A. Farley Post Office opposite Eighth Avenue.
Civic Groups pining for a new version of the old Penn Station might be well intended, but “are pursuing a dream that is unlikely to ever be fulfilled,” Mitchell Moss, the head of the Rudin Center, told Commercial Observer, adding that proposals for an above-ground station on MSG’s footprint “is another example of architects run wild.”
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