MTA searching for Grand Central Madison retail operator, eyeing 2025 openings 

The MTA is on the hunt for a company to operate shops and restaurants inside the Long Island Rail Road’s new Manhattan home, the agency’s leader announced Tuesday.

But LIRR riders will have to wait until 2025 for most of the shopping or dining at Grand Central Madison, other than at one bar and grill opening this fall, officials said.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman and CEO Janno Lieber revealed Tuesday the MTA has put out to bid a contract for a “master lessee” for Grand Central Madison, the 700,000-square foot LIRR terminal that opened in January of last year.

“There is still one unrealized component of the Grand Central Madison experience that we are all looking forward to,” Lieber said at a retail conference held in the station Tuesday morning. “And that’s the retail that is going to bring it to the next level. It’s time for the MTA, together with the private sector, to begin addressing that.”

According to the published request for proposal, the MTA is looking for a firm to oversee 25,000 square feet of retail space spread out across 32 units in the station, which spans five city blocks below Vanderbilt Avenue on Manhattan’s East Side.

MTA real estate chief David Florio said bids are due back by June and the transit authority expects to award a contract by this fall.

“We’re hoping to see some stores slowly ramp up through the course of 2025,” Florio said. “Probably by 2026, you may see a full compliment of stores.”

Since opening more than a year ago, Grand Central Madison is now serving around 65,000 riders a day, Lieber said. But those riders have few options to get a bite or drink, outside a few coffee carts and vending machines.

Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the LIRR Commuter Council, a rider advocacy group, said putting the retail contract out to bid is "an important step" for Grand Central Madison.

"We're looking forward to the day the hustle and bustle of riders is matched with shoppers, drinkers and diners in this beautiful terminal," Bringmann said in a statement.

The MTA first put out feelers to prospective bidders in 2021, but Lieber at a March meeting said the procurement was stymied by pandemic-related uncertainty among retail operators.

The MTA last month revealed what Lieber called the “anchor” tenant for Grand Central Madison’s retail space, Tracks Raw Bar & Grill — the popular eatery that has been a staple near Penn Station for more than 30 years. It’s expected to open by this fall.

In populating the rest of Grand Central Madison’s storefronts, Lieber said the MTA will look for a mix of tenants similar to those found at the original Grand Central Terminal, which opened in 1913 and sits above Grand Central Madison. It includes shops and restaurants ranging from the Apple Store to Duane Reade.

“It’s convenience. It’s a little bit of fashion. It’s national brands mixed up with New York brands,” Lieber said. “I think Grand Central is a great model for what we’re hoping to accomplish down here.”

By Alfonso A. Castillo

alfonso.castillo@newsday.com@alfonsoreports

Alfonso Castillo has been reporting for Newsday since 1999 and covering the transportation beat since 2008. He grew up in the Bronx and Queens and now lives in Valley Stream with his wife and two sons.