4.30.24 - Vornado spending $65M to spruce up area around Penn Station for commuters
' Vornado Realty Trust is working on a $65 million streetscape project around Penn Station even as broader plans for transforming the neighborhood remain up in the air.
The project aims to make the area more hospitable to commuters by adding a new pedestrian plaza and rebuilding the sidewalks to be twice as wide as they are now. The plaza will span 16,000 square feet on West 33rd Street outside the station's new East End Gateway and feature five October Glory maple trees, new seating and new restaurants. It should be ready to open in June.
The firm is adding 10 feet to the sidewalks along Seventh Avenue between West 31st and West 34th streets and replacing a half-mile of them with 4 acres of granite paver stones imported from Belgium. Vornado recently completed the first section of the expanded sidewalk, and the entire project should be done by the fall.
"Our vision is to welcome office workers, commuters, visitors and shoppers with wide granite sidewalks, expansive tree-lined plazas, new and accessible entrances to Penn Station, and storefronts activated by outstanding curated restaurants and retailers," Vornado's co-head of real estate, Barry Langer, said in a statement. '