MTA opens landmark Fulton Center in Lower Manhattan

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) yesterday unveiled the Fulton Center, a fully digital transit and retail hub located at the crossroads of Lower Manhattan on Broadway and John and Fulton streets in New York City.

MTA officials described the facility as the city's "next great public place," and one that integrates architectural ingenuity that fuses history, art and sustainable engineering.

The $1.4 billion Fulton Center was funded with $847 million from a special congressional appropriation granted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Known as the Lower Manhattan Recovery Grants, the funds were intended for local transit agencies to repair, replace and enhance transportation infrastructure in Lower Manhattan. The MTA provided $130 million for the project, which also received $423 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the act's largest single award, MTA officials said in a press release.

"The new Fulton Center facility sends a clear message that the United States is committed to building transportation infrastructure that will move our country’s economy forward," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. "We're proud to celebrate this milestone, but we must do more. We are committed to working with Congress to find bipartisan solutions that will help New York continue to revitalize its infrastructure in the years ahead."

The project include the restoration of the 125-year-old Corbin Building, which will provide additional public access to the Fulton Center. The center will house 66,000 square feet of retail and commercial space and the MTA’s largest digital media program, both of which are being managed and operated by Westfield Corp.

"This building stands as a testament to the strength and resilience New York showed on 9/11 and every day since. And it stands as a testament to what smart investments in infrastructure can do to improve a city, a state, and even a nation," said MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Prendergast.