By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The city's request for a $3 million grant to bring the No. 7 train all the way to Tenth Avenue has been rejected by the federal Department of Transportation, Crain's New York Business reported.
The push to add a station at the West 41st Street intersection was led by real estate and construction lobbyists intent on spurring development, according to Crain's. Industry executives had offered $250,000 in matching funds to help secure the grant.
While the blocks surrounding the proposed Hell's Kitchen corner are still largely free of commercial development, two big new hotel projects — the Yotel on 42nd and Tenth Avenue and the Out NYC at 42nd and Ninth Avenue — will open their doors in 2011.
Construction and real estate officials are still searching for other federal fund sources, according to Crain's, especially given the billions of dollars freed up by the now-defunct plans for a Hudson River rail tunnel ("Access to the Region's Core").
"That money should be deployed in New York," Mary Ann Tighe, chair of the Real Estate Board of New York, told Crain's.
