MTA to buy Grand Central, Harlem and Hudson lines for $35M, opening development options

The MTA has plans to purchase Grand Central Terminal and Metro-North’s Hudson and Harlem lines, ending a 280-year lease deal that officials say limited the authority’s ability to control future development.

The $35 million purchase from Midtown Trackage Ventures, a private holding company, was approved by the MTA’s finance committee Tuesday and is expected to be approved by the full MTA Board Thursday.

Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chief development officer, said the deal made financial sense at a time when interest rates made it cheaper to buy now rather than continuing to pay rent for another 270 years.

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Lieber said the deal opens up greater opportunities to pursue housing and business development in towns and cities along the Hudson and Harlem lines in Westchester County and further north.

“Equally important, this transaction secures for the MTA control over development rights along the Harlem and Hudson Line, which will allow us to help local jurisdictions implement high quality Transit Oriented Development for generations to come,” Lieber said.

The $35 million purchase price is equal to the rent the MTA has been paying under a lease deal signed in 1994 that would have expired in 2274. Metro-North has been paying annual rent of $2.4 million. The deal included an option for purchase in 2019.

“This marks a new chapter in the railroad’s history and eliminates a quirk that had lingered in the background as Metro-North has established itself,” said Metro-North president Catherine Rinaldi. “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.”

The MTA’s ownership rights on the Hudson Line will extend some 2 miles north of the Metro-North station in Poughkeepsie. Its Harlem Line rights will extend to Dover Plains, New York.