Design Competition to be Held for New Port Authority Bus Terminal

At its meeting Thursday, the Port Authority board voted to hold an international design competition for a new terminal. The goal: pick a winner by next September.

But that's about all that is known about the new terminal.

"No specific decision on location, size of the building, design of the building, capability of the building, retail of the building, financing, cost, etcetera, is being made today," said Port Authority executive director Pat Foye. "Those decisions will be made in the months to come."

The agency's preferred site for a new terminal is west of the existing one in Times Square. But if the winner has a better idea, they'd be open to it.

Meanwhile, the board says there's a lot of other work to be done. It voted to hire a consultant to study future ridership projections. And it says it needs to open a dialog with neighborhood residents.

That conversation can't happen too soon, according to Christine Berthet, the chair of Manhattan Community Board 4.

"We are appalled at the idea of condemning two blocks in the heart of Hell's Kitchen south," said Berthet. She pointed out that the site under consideration by the Port is already home to "affordable housing tenants, a church, a food pantry, a nursery school, a farm, two affordable food supermarkets, and a number of retail stores...the Robert Moses technique of razing our neighborhood is not acceptable any longer."

Because no design has been picked, there's no budget for the project. But previous estimates have put the cost of a new bus terminal around $10 billion.