Port Authority Chairman Anthony Coscia told a Crain's Breakfast Forum yesterday that his agency, according to an article by Erik Engquist in yesterday's on-line edition of Crain's New York Business, "is best suited to take over the stalled Moynihan Station project."

Senator Charles E. Schumer last month proposed that the authority take over the redevelopment of the James Farley Post Office building on the west side of Eighth Avenue between 31st and 33rd Streets that the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan had championed as a major new train station.

His announcement came as Madison Square Garden announced that it had decided to renovate its famous circular arena across the avenue from the post office rather than build a new one in the west half of the post office. A joint venture of the Related Companies and Vornado Realty Trust had hoped that the relocation of the Garden would permit the redevelopment of the post office and transfer of development rights in the area for new office towers in a scheme estimated at $14 billion.

Subsequently, Vornado sent a letter to its investors that it still hoped "something good will happen" with the post office site.

According to today's article, Mr. Coscia said his agency is most interested in the project "as an expansion of the transportation network, not as office development" and he told the meeting that he could understand why the Garden would "lose patience." "He declined to call the demise of the more grandiose plan a defeat, saying that adding rail capacity would by itself spur economic development, by increasing rents and drawing business tenants to the West Side," the article said.

He said the planned train facility "represents an opportunity to dramatically expand Penn Station." The Moynihan Station project was widely praised for having the potential to relieve congestion and improve conditions at Penn Station, which is just to the east of Madison Square Garden. The original Pennsylvania Station was designed by McKim, Mead & White and was one of the most impressive buildings in the city with spectacular and huge interiors. Its demolition in the early 1960s led to the formation of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission and its replacement beneath a large, boxy office building was immediately lamented for its lack of architectural dignity and grace.

The ambitious plans of Related and Vornado called for the opening up of the existing Penn Station once the Garden was relocated to the post office site. The post office building was also designed by McKim, Mead & White and is notable for its two-block-long high front stairs and colonnaded entrance, but it is otherwise not a distinguished Beaux Art structure. McKim, Mead & White also designed the Hotel Pennsylvania on the east side of Seventh Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets. It is owned by Vornado and at one point it recently planned to demolish it for a new headquarters building for Merrill Lynch. Merrill Lynch, however, subsequently changed its plans and efforts to have the hotel considered for designation as an official city landmark were rejected by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

An article by Charles V. Bagli in Monday's edition of The New York Times was entitled "West Side Redevelopment Plans in Disarray." "Because of the economic downturn, logistical problems and, critics say, design flaws, the expansion of the Javits Center has died, the plan to rebuild Penn Station and the area around it is in jeopardy and there are deep questions about financing, public and private, to extend the subway or build over the railyards," he wrote.

"Many planners," the article continued, "suggest scrapping the costly tree-lined boulevard that would run from 33rd Street to 42nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues," and "others say that the current zoning should be loosened to allow for residential buildings as well as office towers on 11th Avenue."