The Metropolitan Transportation Authority sank $25 million into designing a grand pavilion for its Fulton Street Transit Center that it now apparently can’t afford to build.
The big-ticket blueprint is among many expenses incurred for plans that may never be realized for the “Grand Central Station” of lower Manhattan.
But an MTA spokesman yesterday defended the price, calling it reasonable in the context of a billion-dollar project.
“We don’t know where we’re going to end up, so it’s too soon to say it’s wasted,” said the spokesman, Jeremy Soffin.
MTA officials notified board members Monday that it can afford to complete only the underground transit hub for a dozen subway lines by the end of 2010 at a cost of $930 million.
The agency will spend the next 30 days trying to decide what it can afford to put above ground and how.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver slammed the agency for failing to deliver the project that was promised.
“Those who live, work and visit downtown have been misled for far too long with grand plans and unrealistic timetables for projects, and enough is enough,” he said. “What was promised to this community by the MTA must be funded and built.”
Among the costs that broke the bank were soaring property values and rising steel, cement and asphalt prices.