$8B Penn Station rebuild goes to firm apparently favored by Trump; MSG to stay put

Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News on May 20, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

A day after declaring it would cost $8 billion to rebuild Penn Station — and a day before the Amtrak Board was scheduled to meet — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Wednesday that a coalition of Halmar, the U.S. arm of Italian company ASTM Group, and the construction firm Skanska would be in charge of the massive project.

The announcement comes a month after President Donald Trump hinted at favoring the design in an interview with the New York Post.

Details were scarce on the plan selected by Amtrak to rebuild the dilapidated midtown hub, but a list of features touted by a USDOT spokesman lined up with an earlier plan hawked by ASTM before the federal takeover of the project.

The selected plan involves the construction of a “grand entrance on Eighth Avenue,” “open, beautiful concourses,” and “new cladding for a classical look,” a USDOT release said.

The design does not include moving Madison Square Garden.

The design will also expand track capacity, the release said, allowing limited through-running of trains between New Jersey and Long Island — though how that would be accomplished was not immediately clear.

“In selecting Penn Transformation Partners … and their innovative plan, we are one step closer to delivering a world-class travel hub that daily commuters and travelers have dreamed of for decades,” Duffy said in a statement Wednesday.

“Under President Trump’s historic leadership, the days of Penn Station’s cramped hallways, broken infrastructure, and snarled rail lines are numbered.”

The plan was one of three submitted to an Amtrak design board last month.

It beat out a neoclassical design proposed by “Grand Penn Partners,” a group backed by Tom Klingenstein — chairman of the right-wing think tank the Claremont Institute and a major Trump donor. The Halmar/Skanska plan also beat a mystery proposal from a consortium funded by investment manager Fengate.

Halmar has its own links to the Trump administration. Peter Cipriano, the firm’s executive vice president of corporate development, was previously a senior adviser at USDOT during the first Trump administration.

Trump appeared to show favor for the firm’s concept last month, when he told the Post he wanted Madison Square Garden to stay put. Trump said he’d met with MSG’s owner James Dolan and property developer Steven Roth — who sought to dissuade him from approving any plan that would demolish The Garden.

The arena has “the best sightlines, the best sound,” the president said.

Claiming he’d looked at “hundreds” of plans for a new Penn Station, the former New Yorker said he’d prefer a plan that built a grand entrance of Eighth Avenue — effectively endorsing the plan without actually naming it. Trump made those comments on April 19 — eleven days before Amtrak’s deadline for proposals on April 30.

An Amtrak spokesman confirmed that the federal railroad’s board had signed off on the selection before bringing it to President Trump.

The announcement, which had initially been expected in June, comes a day after Duffy said the feds would be putting $8 billion into rebuilding the station.

“We’re making generational improvements to the Northeast Corridor,” Duffy told a Senate panel in Washington DC on Tuesday. “That means … a transformative investment in New York’s Penn Station — $8 billion, by the way.”

The feds took over the redesign of Penn Station in April 2025 from the MTA — which had been tasked with overhauling the above-ground portion while Amtrak redesigned the track layout.

“The MTA’s history of inefficiency, waste and mismanagement also meant that a new approach is needed,” Duffy said at the time. “By putting taxpayers first, we’re ensuring every dollar is spent wisely to create a transit hub all Americans can take pride in.”

The MTA’s portion of the project — which would not have included track expansions or changes to allow through-running — had been expected to cost under $7 billion.

“The plan that we were working on with NJ Transit and Amtrak before the Trump administration took over Penn Station for themselves and Amtrak was a lot cheaper than that,” MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said Wednesday. “Nevertheless, I’d say its great news that the Trump administration has decided they want to give that many billion dollars to renovate Penn Station.”

It was not clear Wednesday where the $8 billion would come from — especially since Trump’s Penn Station Czar, former NYC Transit President Andy Byford, has said the project will be at least partially run as a public-private partnership.

In a statement Wednesday, Gov. Hochul welcomed the selection of a master developer.

“Today’s announcement selecting a master developer is another important step in the Penn reconstruction process, and I plan to thoroughly review the proposal in the weeks ahead,” she said.

“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,” she said.