MTA intends to sell, lease 9 properties

The MTA said Monday that it intends to sell or lease nine parcels of property, including the former NYC Transit headquarters at 370 Jay St. in Downtown Brooklyn.

Officials could offer no specifics on the expected financial impact on the agency, which is struggling to hold the line on fares and to fund ambitious capital construction projects, including the Second Avenue Subway and the Long Island Rail Road's connection to the East Side of Manhattan.

All nine properties are owned by the city and are under long-term lease to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for nominal amounts, agency spokesman Aaron Donovan said. They will be sold or leased jointly with the city, he said.

The main property under consideration is 370 Jay St., and Donovan said the city has agreed the MTA will have priority on "tens of millions of dollars" in revenue from a sale or lease to pay for relocating existing MTA communications equipment from the building.

"The implications of that on the city's obligation to contribute to our capital budget are being discussed," he said, holding out the possibility that the city could reduce its funding.

One legislative critic of the agency, state Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), said he was concerned that the MTA was unloading real estate at the wrong time.

"Right now you have the worst real estate market in the history of mankind," Marcellino said. "And if these are sales instead of leases, they would be [revenue] one-shots."

The other properties include a vacant parcel adjoining the Gun Hill Bus Depot that can be seen from the New England Thruway near Co-op City in the Bronx, a triangular parcel at Houston Street and Broadway in Manhattan, and an elongated parcel at Varick and Johnson avenues in Bushwick, Brooklyn.