The developer, George Washington Bridge Bus Station Development Venture LLC, filed court papers on Monday, saying it has between $50 million and $100 million in assets, but liabilities of up to $500 million. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo George Washington Bridge bus station developer files for bankruptcy

Eleven years after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey unveiled an ambitious plan to rebuild New York City’s uptown bus terminal, the outfit tasked with completing the project has filed for bankruptcy.

The developer, George Washington Bridge Bus Station Development Venture LLC, filed court papers on Monday, saying it has between $50 million and $100 million in assets, but liabilities of up to $500 million.


Michael Sirota, the attorney representing the developer in the bankruptcy, had no immediate comment.

The project, announced in 2008 at an original cost of $180 million, called for the developer to build a modern bus terminal, with updated gates, a better waiting area, better connections to the subway and the creation of 119,000 square feet of “first-class retail space.”

“Through this unique partnership, the Port Authority will help ease the commute for people on both sides of the river by reducing traffic on the world’s busiest bridge,” said former Port Authority Chairman (and now-felon) David Samson, in 2011, after the deal was lightly amended. “At the same time, we’ll be putting more than 700 people to work, providing a major boost to the regional economy.”

Since then, the project has been mired in delays and contract disputes.

In 2017, then-Port Authority Chairman John Degnan called the public-private partnership, which opened years late, "an embarrassment to the Port Authority and should be an embarrassment to the developer and to the contractor.”

Among the folks to whom the developer says it owes money is contractor, Tutor Perini Building Corporation, which has separately sued the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey over delays and cost overruns.

The bus terminal provides some 5 million trips a year.

“This development will not impact day-to-day activity at the Bus Station,” said Port Authority spokesperson Steve Coleman, in a statement. “It will not impact bus service, which is managed directly by the Port Authority. And it will not impact the Bus Station’s existing retailers, which have leases to conduct business at the Station.”