Crain's
February 16, 2010 3:52 PM
Outcry emerges for 41st St. stop on new 7-line
Construction industry and powerful real estate group launch effort, including Web-based petition, to support the construction of the once-proposed station.
The real estate and construction industries have started a full-court press, including a Web-based petition, to resurrect plans to build a stop at West 41st and Ninth Avenue for the extension of the No. 7 train line.
Over the weekend, the Real Estate Board of New York launched a Web site
http://www.BuildTheStation.com so people could sign a petition to encourage elected officials to finance the stop. Currently, the line will only include one new stop, at West 34th Street. This week, both residential and commercial brokers are expected to ask tenants in buildings on the far West side near West 42nd Street to sign petitions.
There were plans to build a shell for a station on West 41st Street and then go back and build out the stop. However, a couple of months ago, plans to build the shell were abandoned.
Steven Spinola, president of REBNY, says a lot of area residents don't even know the plan to build the shell have been abandoned so the petition is an attempt to raise awareness and spur people to contact local officials.
“We've been told it would cost a lot more money to go back and build the station later,” Mr. Spinola said.