New York eyes skyscraper designs for Port Authority bus station

By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - All three new designs for a new skyscraper to be built atop Manhattan's bus terminal would pay for improvments for passengers and transform the existing low-rise building by wrapping it in glass or a cross-hatch design, the land-owning agency said.

Construction on the new tower, which will give the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey about $510 million over four years, could start in late 2009 or early 2010 and will take about four years, the agency said.

Port Authority, which says its trains, bridges, tunnels and airports are all economic arteries, said the revenue from the new office tower would be used to upgrade and expand the terminal by, for example, adding 18 new gates for buses.

The lease will run for 99 years, and the payment to the agency assumes what is called an equivalent rent of $265 per square foot.

The bus station dates back to 1950 and despite some recent improvements, critics say its layout is cramped and confusing and offers its 200,000 daily passengers little of the grandeur of other stations, most notably Grand Central Terminal.

The builders' name capitalizes on the bus station's proximity to Times Square, which has become a bustling business and tourist destination, though the terminal is located one block west. 20X Square is a joint venture of Vornado Realty LP VNO.N and Lawrence Ruben Company.

All the designs call for a skyscraper of around 40 stories, with thousands of square feet of shops, according to the Port Authority, a top issuer of municipal bonds. None of the floors, however, will be big enough for bank trading floors, partly because the credit crunch has diminished such companies' appetite for new headquarters.

The Port Authority and the builders hope to select the winning design in 30 to 60 days, and the three designs, by Rogers Stirk Harbour, Pelli Clarke Pelli and Kohn Pedersen Fox, should be posted on the agency's web site, www.panynj.gov, in the next few days.