In a related agreement, the city capped its financial obligation to build a subway extension to the neighborhood from Times Square at $2.1 billion.

The estate was sold in 1904 by his family to developers speculating on the subway extension into the Bronx.

Rockefeller Center and the subway extension would probably also have gone nowhere in today's climate of "don't just do something, stand there."

But before those revenues materialize, about $1.7 billion will be needed to build the subway extension alone.

It is likely the two projects, Gateway and the subway extension, will be in competition for funding.

Unfortunately, funding ran out before the subway extension could be finished.

The design can even accommodate a light-rail station if the long-proposed subway extension to Kennedy is ever built.

When a new road and subway extension are completed, commuting time is expected to drop to 40 minutes.

The site, he points out, requires building a $1.8 billion subway extension to get there.

But for it to be commercially viable a subway extension must be built with public money.