Midtown Trackage Ventures, LLC, intends to sell Grand Central Terminal, as well as Metro-North Railroad’s Harlem and Hudson Lines for $35 million to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) following approval by the MTA Board’s Finance Committee. The transaction still requires approval of the full board before it can move forward.
MTA has a 280-year lease for the assets for which is pays $2.4 million in annual rent. The lease contains a single window of opportunity in which to buy the terminal and two lines. That window is set to close in 11 months. MTA said that ownership of the assets will allow Metro-North unencumbered control and responsibility of its operating environment for the first time. Additionally, ownership of Grand Central Terminal will further give MTA Long Island Rail Road clear control of the East Side Access terminal being built beneath Grand Central Terminal.
“This was a no-brainer, from a financial standpoint,” said MTA Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber. “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. Equally important, 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.”
The MTA’s Hudson Line ownership will extend to 2.2 miles north of the Poughkeepsie Station, where Metro-North train dispatchers hand off control of train movement to Amtrak. Tracks north of this point are owned by CSX Transportation, one of the seven major freight railroads in United States.
The portion of the Harlem Line now being acquired by the MTA extends as far north as Dover Plains, N.Y. The MTA previously acquired the segment of the line from Dover Plains to Wassaic, N.Y., in 1990 when Metro-North extended the Harlem Line tracks northward over this five-mile segment.
“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,” said Catherine Rinaldi, president of Metro-North Railroad. “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.”
