Unlocking Penn’s Potential: Establishing a Penn Station Redevelopment and Revenue Capture District

On behalf of the Alliance for a New Penn Station, JLP+D, with Encher Consulting, produced and published “Unlocking Penn’s Potential: Establishing a Penn Station Redevelopment and Revenue Capture District,” a detailed report that quantified the economic, real estate, and public policy benefits of a reimagined Pennsylvania Station transit hub. The report identified more than thirty significantly sized soft sites in the vicinity of the station and created a plan which proposed to upzone the district from 10 FAR to an average of 24 FAR, capturing a portion of the resulting incremental real estate value through an FAR bonus assessment. The report projects that the revenue capture stream would generate $1.3 billion in potential value by “unlocking” the value of this underperforming district by leveraging proximity to one of the largest transportation hubs in the world; this estimate excludes the additional value that real tax payments, and payments like PILOMRT and PILOST, would be generated by the significant increase in new development the plan would facilitate. James Lima constructed the argument that this initiative addresses national, regional, and local interests. James also assisted the Alliance in building broad constituencies in support of Alliance objectives and goals, including testifying at the New York City Council public hearing on the report’s findings during the project’s land use review.