MTA to buy Grand Central Terminal, Harlem and Hudson lines

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) finance committee yesterday approved the purchase of Grand Central Terminal in New York City and MTA Metro-North Railroad's Harlem and Hudson lines from Midtown Trackage Ventures LLC for $35 million.

The purchase would end the MTA's 280-year lease of Grand Central and give Metro-North "unencumbered control" of its operating environment, MTA officials said in a press release.

The transaction requires MTA's full board approval, which is expected to be granted at a meeting tomorrow.

The MTA in 1994 signed the Grand Central lease with American Premier Underwriters, which sold the ownership rights to Midtown Trackage Ventures in the early 2000s. Metro-North had been paying $2.4 million each year to use the property, according to the MTA.

The current interest rate environment — paired with a $500,000 discount offered by the seller — will mean it's cheaper to buy the terminal rather than continue to rent, said MTA Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber.

"This transaction secures for the MTA control over development rights along the Harlem Line and Hudson Line, which will allow us to help local jurisdictions implement high quality transit-oriented development for generations to come," Lieber said.

The MTA's Hudson Line ownership will extend 2.2 miles north of the Poughkeepsie Station, where Metro-North dispatchers hand off control of train movements to Amtrak. CSX owns the tracks north of this point.

The MTA now owns the Harlem Line as far north as Dover Plains, New York. The MTA previously acquired the segment of the line from Dover Plains to Wassaic, New York, in 1990.