Advance Notice for Penn Station Redeveloper Procurement

The Department of Transportation (DOT) and Amtrak are wasting very little time moving forward with a P3 procurement to redevelop Penn Station in New York. The agency has noticed that it intends to publish a solicitation for a master developer for the project by the end of this year, and that it will be engaging with the construction industry this fall in preparation.

In late May, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that he was appointing Andy Byford as a special advisor to Amtrak’s board to oversee the redevelopment project. Byford was previously the President of the New York City Transit Authority before running public transportation for London. Most recently he was leading high speed rail development initiatives for Amtrak.

In August, the DOT awarded Amtrak a $43 million grant to begin preliminary work on the project.

“The transformation of New York Penn Station is underway, and USDOT and Amtrak are strongly committed to beginning construction by the end of 2027,” said Byford. “We’re grateful to Secretary Duffy and the entire Department of Transportation, as well as President Trump and his administration, for bringing urgency and clarity to the Station’s Transformation and their confidence in allowing Amtrak to carry out their vision for a world-class, safe, and modern station.”

Per Amtrak’s preliminary development schedule. It plans to select a master developer in May 2026, then spend the rest of 2026 and 2027 completing preliminary design and environmental permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). It aims to start construction by the end of 2027.

That is an extraordinarily short planning timeline for a redevelopment project of this scale, let alone one that will need to keep the station, which is America’s busiest, fully operational. And, considering Penn Station’s history, the timeline is almost unimaginable. Redevelopment projects for the station have been proposed since the 1980’s.

“The aggressive schedule we’ve outlined will ensure we are back on track to deliver a gleaming monument worthy of New York City,” said Secretary Duffy.

No MTA

The upcoming P3 procurement was made possible when the Trump Administration opted to take over the Penn Station redevelopment project from New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in April. At the time, Secretary Duffy announced that the takeover would save taxpayers $120 million. The MTA was working on its own long-awaited development plans for Penn Station at the time. The transit agency was also a staunch opponent of a 2023 proposal to redevelop the station as a P3.

New York’s response to the takeover was oddly mixed. Governor Hochul thanked Secretary Duffy for it, but because it meant that the federal government would be fully funding the project. Prior to the takeover, the state of New York planned to spend $1.3 billion on the project, which had an estimated total cost of $7 billion.

The question of how the project will be funded is actually still unanswered, and could be a source of conflict for the project in the future. A prior plan from the state would have funded the project via developer fees for a bunch of office buildings that would have been a built around the station. In 2023, however, Governor Hochul announced that the state was decoupling the office tower plans from the station redevelopment project.

Given how much the federal government has spent on rail transit in recent years, you can’t blame Governor Hochul or any other state and local stakeholders for expecting the redevelopment of the nation’s busiest train station to attract a considerable amount of federal funding. That expectation could create an incentive for obstruction if the Trump Administration ends up offering little direct federal funding for the project, and stakeholders think a future administration might offer more.

The politics of the Penn Station redevelopment project have been remarkably cordial since the Trump Administration took the project over earlier this year. It would be surprising if the politics stayed that way much longer.

The Last Proposal

The Trump Administration didn’t come up with a P3 for the Penn Station redevelopment out of the blue. In 2023, an unsolicited proposal from ASTM North America built serious momentum around a P3 for the redevelopment project before getting bogged down in New York politics.

That proposal included renderings, plans, and a rough development timeline. It would have kept Madison Square Garden in place put purchase its Hulu Theater to make way for a new entrance to Penn Station. The proposal came with a $6 billion price tag, including $1 billion in private investment.

The proposal was criticized by the MTA’s leadership at the time, as the agency was working on its own plans for the redevelopment project. Despite some early momentum, the state never responded with formal talks or an open procurement for a redevelopment P3.