The renovation of Madison Square Garden is anticipated to cost between $775 million and $850 million, much higher than the $500 million estimate made by Garden officials when they first unveiled plans in April 2008, according to an article yesterday in The New York Times by Richard Sandomir.

The current estimate is based on elaborate drawings of every element of the construction plan and Madison Square Garden spent $60 million to start the renovation in areas not visible to the public through the end of 2009, the article maintained.

The renovation, the article continued, "will move into high gear next year with the first of three summer shutdowns" and "each year, construction will start with the end of the Knicks' season or the Rangers', whichever comes later."

The article said that Turner Construction is renovating the arena and needs about 20 consecutive weeks from the end of play, adding that one of the garden's properties, the Liberty of the W.N.B.A, will have to play home games elsewhere beginning next year, possibly at the Prudential Center in Newark.

The MSG Network has begun moving across Seventh Avenue to a new space at 11 Penn Plaza and after the N.B.A. draft on June 24, the Theater at Madison Square Garden will be closed but will reopen in the fall, the article maintained, noting that the Play by Play sports bar will soon close for good.

The Garden plans to reopen in October 20011 with its lower bowl seats refurbished and the 20 event-level suites, which are at or near the ice or the basketball court, ready to be occupied at rents of about $1 million each, and new locker rooms, dressing rooms for entertainers and the news media area will be ready as will the new sixth-floor concourse, which will be widened.

When the arena reopens after the summer of 2012, the upper bowl seating is expected to be done with seats moved close to "the action with 22 lower-level suites will be ready to start the season and 36 more finished by the end of the year."

In October 2013, the article continued, the final phase will open consisting of an open-air, two-level Seventh Avenue lobby and 18 revamped suites on the ninth floor. In addition, tow bridges that will span the arena lengthwise and serve the concourses and seating areas will open.

"This isn't a renovation. This is a new building within the familiar exterior of the Garden," Hank J. Ratner, the president and chief executive office of the Garden, exclaimed to The Times.

At one point, the garden was reported planning to move into the James Farley Post Office Building on the west side of Eighth Avenue, a move that would enable the redevelopment of its current site on the east side of Eighth Avenue with major new office towers as well as a renovated Penn Station.