2025 promises to be packed with megaprojects and policies set to transform the city. These efforts include real estate titans advancing plans for the city’s first casinos, transit officials fine-tuning their vision to reinvent a crumbling stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the city enforcing a first-in-the-nation climate law that will charge building owners who fail to comply. But the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump has cast some uncertainty on how several of these projects will pan out — and whether a few will even get off the ground.
Congestion pricing hits the gas
Congestion pricing may not be a megaproject in the traditional sense, but the program’s impact on Manhattan’s core and the surrounding region will be no less seismic. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s hotly contested effort to charge a toll on most motorists who drive below 60th Street — to finance mass transit upgrades for the region — is set to launch Jan. 5. Gov. Kathy Hochul controversially postponed the program from its initial June 30 launch date and lowered the program’s base toll from $15 to $9 — though that fee will gradually rise to the original figure by 2031.
The program cleared its final bureaucratic hurdle after years of back-and-forth, with the Federal Highway Administration, granting the MTA permission to hit the gas on the new tolls. But two threats loom for the program: pending lawsuits that could put the program on hold and the incoming Trump administration. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to thwart the program.
Penn Station overhaul hinges on Trump funding
State leaders’ efforts to redevelop Penn Station went through roller coaster years in 2022 and 2023, with scrapped plans and new proposals. Since then transit officials have made limited progress on getting the undertaking off the ground. That spells trouble for officials’ odds of securing federal funding with the departure of rail-friendly President Joe Biden from the White House in January and the arrival of Trump.
But there’s still some hope for overhauling the nation’s busiest rail hub, where some 600,000 commuters pass under Madison Square Garden each day. In a November phone call with Trump, Gov. Kathy Hochul discussed securing federal dollars for what could be legacy-defining transit projects, including Penn Station’s revamp. She has previously said she’s looking to appeal to Trump’s ego and origins as a real estate developer to overcome his antipathy to the city and woo funds. The MTA wants Penn Station renovations to be part of the authority’s proposed capital plan for 2025 through 2029 — if the new bid for federal funds is successful.
BQE revamp in limbo
For decades city and state officials have put off a much-needed overhaul of a crumbling section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The city’s recent proposals to rebuild the road have, since 2019, been either rejected by locals or floundered in bureaucratic limbo. Currently, the city has three proposals to overhaul the highway’s triple-cantilever structure tucked beneath the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, but those visions depend on state and federal approvals and funding. With an incoming Trump administration, it is unclear what type of highway project federal transit officials will have an appetite to fund.
Local Law 97 enforcement begins
This sweeping climate law is another major undertaking that isn’t a typical megaproject but will profoundly affect the city’s large building owners. And 2025 will be a big year for its implementation. Local Law 97, which kicked off this year, requires most buildings over 25,000 square feet to reduce their carbon emissions and to comply with increasingly strict mandates in 2030, and then every five years until 2050. If a building exceeds its carbon cap, owners will face fees of $268 for every ton of carbon dioxide over the limit. Building owners are required to submit a report to the city by May with emissions data proving they are in compliance with the first-in-the-nation law. If not, they could be hit with tens of thousands in annual fees, or millions in the case of some skyscrapers and large portfolio owners. The city has been scrambling to beef up its team of staffers who will review the reports and enforce the law.
City’s first casino bids due
Since 2023 armies of lobbyists, developers and gaming executives have been waiting anxiously for applications to open up for the three casino licenses that will be awarded in and around the five boroughs. Applications by the 11 known casino bidders are due June 27, with licenses to be awarded by Dec. 31, 2025. The state’s four-member Gaming Facility Location Board will ultimately choose the winning bidders. Deep-pocketed casino contenders including SL Green, The Related Cos. and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen will continue their lobbying bonanza surrounding the high-stakes process as each bidder tries to secure local support.
An ill wind for offshore turbines
Candidly, the outlook for new wind farms off the coast of Long Island is not great. That also holds true for large-scale renewable energy development throughout the state. Industry players are warily awaiting Trump’s return to the White House. The president-elect’s first administration slashed spending for climate-oriented federal agencies and the local energy initiatives they doled out approvals and funding for, and on the campaign trail Trump frequently vowed to obstruct clean energy projects. Some energy developers are already taking precautions. In November French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies SE halted the development of its New York offshore wind farm; the firm’s chief executive said uncertainty created by a new Trump administration warranted the pause. Next year promises to be a tumultuous one for the sector.
