A Look at the $10 Billion Design for a New Port Authority Bus Terminal

It has taken a full decade to conceive, but a $10 billion transformation of New York City’s dreary main bus terminal may get rolling in the next few months.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the terminal, unveiled an updated design for its replacement on Thursday. Instead of the dismal, brick hulk that has darkened two full blocks of Midtown Manhattan for over 70 years, there would be a bright, modern transit hub topped by two office towers.

“The bus terminal has become a poster child for a failed infrastructure facility that desperately needs to be replaced,” said Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority. “It’s going to be an extraordinary transformation from a rundown, 1950s-era, outdated facility to one that will be intended to be state of the art.”

Construction is expected to take eight years, he said, meaning the project could be completed by 2032. Planning was delayed at least a year by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Port Authority is seeking financial help from the federal and city governments but is pressing ahead to get the plan approved by the Federal Transit Administration, Mr. Cotton said. The public will have 45 days to comment on the plan the agency released on Thursday and there will be four public hearings about it, he said.

Community leaders in Midtown have already exerted significant influence on the design of the project, Mr. Cotton said. They had objected to the condemnation of property for expansion of the terminal and insisted that the project cater to the needs of local residents as well as commuters and travelers, he said.

A previous design that had included building towers on Port Authority property near the terminal has been scaled back. The revised plan calls for fewer new buildings, with office towers that could be more than 60 stories tall on Eighth Avenue at the corners of 40th and 42nd Streets. Payments from the developers of those buildings would help cover the cost of the project, Mr. Cotton said.

“We’re moving forward with somewhat reduced ambitions,” Mr. Cotton said, though he added that the Port Authority was confident there would be ample demand for office space in Midtown in the 2030s to fill those towers.

The agency is negotiating with city officials for tax breaks similar to those that helped pay for the transformation of the old post office near Pennsylvania Station into the Moynihan Train Hall, Mr. Cotton said. The agency is also seeking a $1 billion loan from the federal government, he said.

But the Port Authority would have to come up with the bulk of the estimated $10 billion cost. So far, it has earmarked $3 billion in its long-term budget for improvement projects.

The project would be built in two four-year phases.

The first would involve constructing a separate building west of the terminal to serve as a storage and staging area for buses, as well as ramps to connect the terminal directly to the Lincoln Tunnel. The second phase would consist of building the new terminal where the old one now stands without disrupting the flow of buses that stream in and out of the city at rush hours.

“This community is going to endure the vicissitudes of construction for eight years,” Mr. Cotton cautioned.