MTA To Buy Grand Central Terminal For $35M

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The Metropolitan Transit Authority plans to exercise a clause in its lease of Grand Central Terminal to purchase the Midtown transit hub and Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem and Hudson lines for $35 million, the transit authority announced Tuesday.

In 1994, the MTA entered into an agreement with a company called American Premier Underwriters to lease the historic train station for 280 years with an option to buy the station outright in 2019, transit officials said. The ownership rights now belong to a company called Midtown Trackage Ventures, which will receive the $35 million.

The price tag may seem gaudy, but transit officials insisted it's a bargain.

"This was a no-brainer, from a financial standpoint," MTA Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber said in a statement. "We had to exercise the option to purchase or remain a tenant for another 270-plus years. And the interest rate environment – and the $500,000 discount offered by the seller – means it’s cheaper to buy it now than to pay rent for all that time."

The Metro-North Railroad had been paying an annual rent of $2.4 million for use of Grand Central and the Harlem and Hudson lines.

"This marks a new chapter in the railroad’s history and eliminates a quirk that had lingered quietly in the background as Metro-North has established itself,"Catherine Rinaldi, President of Metro-North Railroad, said in a statement. "By becoming the true owners of the infrastructure that we have long maintained on behalf of the people of New York, we are asserting Metro-North’s permanence as an institution dedicated to public service."

MTA officials also said that the acquisition of Grand Central Terminal will give the Long Island Rail Road "clear control" of the planned East Side Access terminal being built beneath the station. The East Side Access project is expected to be up and running by late 2022, according to the MTA.

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