MTA set to buy Grand Central Terminal

The MTA will soon be the new landlord at Grand Central Terminal.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning to buy Grand Central Terminal and Metro-North’s Harlem and Hudson lines from a private holding company for $35 million. The MTA’s full board is expected to authorize the purchase Thursday.

“This was a no-brainer, from a financial standpoint,” MTA Chief Development Officer Janno Lieber said.

MTA officials said it made fiscal sense for the agency to own Grand Central instead of paying $2.4 million a year in rent to the owner, Midtown Trackage Ventures, LLC. It would put an end to the 280year lease the MTA operated under since 1994 and give the agency control on development rights near the MetroNorth routes.

Ownership will also give the MTA more control of the space when Long Island Rail Road trains start arriving at the iconic terminal when the East Side Access project is complete.

New York Central Railroad built Grand Central Terminal in 1913 and the Hudson and Harlem lines before that. New York Central merged with Pennsylvania Railroad in 1963 to create PennCentral — an entity that went bankrupt in 1970.

The assets passed onto other companies until it landed at Midtown Track Ventures in the early 2000s, according to the MTA.