Top MTA officials announced on Tuesday the continuation of one public-private partnership and the launch of another to help rebuild the next two stretches of a “train shed” leading into the historic Grand Central Terminal.
The MTA announced it has partnered with the bank JP Morgan Chase and the firm Vornado Realty Trust, to oversee construction work on the next two phases of the project. The train shed, which runs beneath Park Avenue from 42nd to 57th Streets, is where 98% of Metro-North Railroad trains entering the station are sorted to the platforms where they will load their passengers.
Chase will lead construction work on the second leg of the project, from East 46th to East 50th Streets, while Vornado will handle the third section, running between East 50th and East 53 Streets. The former had already helmed the first stretch of the reconstruction, which it undertook alongside building its new headquarters at 270 Park Ave, completed earlier this fall.
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber, during a Tuesday press conference in front of Chase’s headquarters, said the renovations are needed because the train shed is in “rough shape” after years of wear and tear without substantial renovations.
“It’s been subjected to water, salt, and chemicals for over a hundred years,” Lieber said of the train shed. “There are areas when you’re in the train shed where you actually see the sky because the concrete is falling, it’s eroding, it’s falling apart. We cannot let this go on.”
The MTA chair said that while the agency has been doing emergency repairs on the shed for years, those are not enough — and it needs a more permanent overhaul.
Both companies are coming on board as partners to “help accelerate the timeline” of the project and to “save the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars in the process,” Lieber added.
Chase has pledged $50 million to the effort, in addition to its existing contribution to the work already completed. Vornado is chipping in $25 million for its stretch of the undertaking.
The latter company will conduct its work, in conjunction with hedge fund manager Ken Griffin and real estate firm Rudin, alongside their reconstruction of 350 Park Ave. That was approved through a rezoning passed by the City Council and signed by the mayor earlier this year.
The MTA estimates the project will cost roughly $1 billion, officials said.
Jamie Torres-Springer, the MTA’s president of construction and development, said the work of improving the shed includes rebuilding the structural supports and waterproofing for its roof.
The MTA is also reconstructing the rest of the tunnel and the viaduct used by Metro-North trains as part of the massive infrastructure project.
Torres-Springer added the project also includes public space upgrades to Park Avenue, with the agency and the city working together to redesign medians up and down the thoroughfare.
“Wider, more welcoming, higher quality, more like park spaces than what you’d think of as a road median,” Torres-Springer said. “With funding from the city, we will rebuild these medians in new and improved form as we get this work done up and down Park Avenue.”
