MTA Ends Search for Grand Central Madison Master Tenant
Restaurants Melba’s and Naya ink deals at station’s dining hall
By Mark Hallum February 4, 2025 12:47 pm
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The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is changing tracks in the management of the retail component of Grand Central Madison.
The agency announced that Melba’s and Naya have signed leases for quick-service restaurants in the dining hall of Grand Central. The two leases come as the MTA shifts from its prior search for a single master tenant for the vacant retail corridor of Grand Central Madison in favor of a piecemeal approach.
“I’m being advised that we had to go in a different direction,” Catherine Rinaldi, president of Metro-North Railroad, said in response to a question about the master tenant search during a Tuesday press conference. As a result, the MTA has issued requests for proposals (RFPs) for retail space at Grand Central Madison, Rinaldi said.
Grand Central’s overall retail footprint is about 90 percent leased, not including Grand Central Madison, but the MTA has released RFPs for individual stalls due in March as it plans a piecemeal approach to lease the 25,000-square-foot retail space in Grand Central Madison to gather revenue from tenants.
The MTA did not immediately disclose the terms of the Melba’s and Naya deals.
The MTA opened the 700,000-square-foot terminal, formerly known as East Side Access, in February 2023 after investing $13 billion over two decades to dig new tunnels between Queens and Grand Central to bring additional rail service from Long Island.
By that time, there was no telling when leases would get signed across the 25,000 square feet allocated to retail space located 170 feet below street level. And in April 2024, the MTA issued an RFP for a master tenant to occupy the entire space.
The MTA has not been on a winning streak lately, however, when it comes to finding or keeping master tenants.
In April 2024, the MTA became locked in litigation with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield over the mall owner’s plan to ditch its 20-year master lease for the retail component of the Fulton Street subway station, also known as the Fulton Center Stores. Westfield complained of crime in the station as one of the reasons for its retreat.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
