MTA: No, really, we’ll build something at Fulton St.

After last week’s discussions about circumferential subway lines of the future, let’s step back and look at something on the MTA’s table that the agency can’t get off the ground: the ever-popular and ever-delayed Fulton St. Transit Hub.

When last we checked in with the Hub in January, the MTA had just scrapped plans for the Hub’s dome and displaced business owners and downtown residents were not too pleased to hear about the project’s uncertain future. Following the apparent end of the MTA’s grand plans for an ornate subway hub-cum-shopping center, downtown denizens were concerned that the MTA would build only an entry plaza and leave the land relatively undeveloped.

Well, late last week, the MTA officially announced that something will arise above the Fulton St. station. The agency doesn’t yet know however what form this building will take. Julie Shapiro, a reporter for the Downtown Express, has more on this ill-fated project’s latest developments:

“It’ll be something more than a plaza, but less than the oculus,” M.T.A. spokesperson Aaron Donovan said, referring to the dome. Donovan also said the building would contain retail, though he did not know what type or how much…

The M.T.A.’s capital plan, released last week, suggests allocating an additional $295 million for the Fulton St. hub, bringing the total for the project to $1.198 billion, more than $400 million over the original estimate for the center before it was scaled back. So far, the M.T.A. has awarded Fulton contracts worth close to $1 billion, Donovan said…

The project’s completion date, last scheduled for June 2009, is listed as “To Be Decided” in the capital plan. Donovan said he would have more information in 30 to 45 days. The below-ground work, to ease connections between 12 subway lines, is moving forward as planned and was never in jeopardy.

So basically, the MTA is seemingly back at Square One with the Fulton St. hub. They will build something, but they don’t know when it will open, what it will look like or who or what may be the commercial tenants. I’m still angling for a ladder leading into a hole in the ground. Perhaps a hatch-like structure a la Lost would be appropriate.

Meanwhile, Shapiro’s article is a treasure trove of angry residents, business owners and Community Board members all opining about the MTA’s inability to deliver the proposed and promised Fulton St. Hub. “We’re very frustrated with this switch-and-bait plan,” Catherine McVay Hughes, a CB1 member, said. “What was promised appears like it’s not going to be delivered.”

Downtown residents are also wary of the MTA’s plan to attract retail to the Hub. Citing the high-end mall at Columbus Circle, Lower Manhattan residents would rather see something that fits the needs of those who live and work in the area. “It’s going to have nothing to do with most of the people who live Downtown and work Downtown,” Arthur Castle, a one-time downtown worker, said. “They should put up something there that will serve a good public purpose, something for the community. I don’t think it should be a big decoration that’s a magnet for high-end retail stores.”

As we sit around here and debate the possibilities of a Brooklyn-Queens-Bronx subway line, a quick glance at Lower Manhattan could dash our hopes. If the MTA can’t get a building off the ground in a real estate space they own, what hopes do we have for a three-borough subway line that would have a greater impact on the city than some ornate transit hub anyway?