Amtrak and the team working to refurbish Baltimore’s historic Pennsylvania Station are still at a standstill since a dispute over construction costs arose this April.
After completing work on the station’s exterior this spring, development group Penn Station Partners estimated that the next phase of construction would cost more than what Amtrak had committed. Citing the gap in costs, Amtrak ordered the developers to temporarily stop work on the project in late April, according to a letter obtained by The Baltimore Sun through a public records request.
The letter released by Amtrak does not specify the developer’s updated cost predictions, and an Amtrak spokesperson did not say how large the initial funding gap was.
“We continue to coordinate closely with Penn Station Partners to advance this important program,” said W. Kyle Anderson, an Amtrak spokesperson.
Representatives from Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners, which together make up Penn Station Partners, did not return requests for comment.
Representatives from Beatty Development Group and Cross Street Partners, which together make up Penn Station Partners, did not return requests for comment.
Amtrak initially refused to release the May 6 letter, citing a provision of the Freedom of Information Act that exempts “trade secrets” and certain financial information from being released. The quasi-public corporation later released documentation after The Sun appealed that decision.
The letter gives an inside look at the ongoing dispute between Amtrak and the private development group, as well as the decision to pause work, referencing failed negotiations between Amtrak and the development group after receiving the higher-than-expected cost estimates.
In the letter, National Passenger Railroad Corporation leadership said that despite negotiations, Penn Station Partners “has indicated it wants Amtrak to solely issue” the stop work order “rather than enter into a mutually acceptable agreement.”
“Amtrak commits to [Penn Station Partners] that it will work in good faith to help resolve this issue and understands that [the development group] will do the same,” Barney E. Gray, who was then Amtrak’s assistant vice president for major stations, wrote in the letter. Gray, who could not be reached for comment, left that post in June, according to his LinkedIn page.
The letter ordered Penn Station Partners to “temporarily cease all work” on the project in order to “mitigate against any unnecessary expenditures” while Amtrak and the partnership “work to understand and resolve this situation.” The development group was still permitted to continue work on the exterior of the station’s headhouse, as well as some necessary work on restoring parapet stone, according to the letter.
But the monthslong cost dispute represents one of the first major hurdles since construction began on the long-awaited project to refurbish the 1911 rail station, touted by officials as a public-private partnership that would bolster both the city’s flagship train station and the Station North neighborhood.
The development partnership was picked by Amtrak in 2019 for the investment of up to $600 million to transform the area around Penn Station and complete improvements to the building, which saw its last major renovation four decades ago. The standstill came shortly after the Penn Station revitalization project reached a milestone of completing the historic structure’s exterior facade as well as a new boarding platform.
Meanwhile, some of the rail agency’s Baltimore-area projects have also faced resistance — more so from the outside. West Baltimore residents have lashed out at plans to replace the Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, a 150-year-old underground path near Penn Station that has long been a bottleneck for Amtrak and MARC trains, with concerns of pollution and structural racism. And, an effort boosted by a rail startup has sought to upend Amtrak’s ongoing work to demolish a series of 1866 bridge piers as the federal rail corporation builds a new bridge over the Susquehanna River.
