After a 12 months of delays, Grand Central Madison is anticipated to get its first bar-restaurant subsequent month — an japanese outpost of the well-known Penn Station pub Tracks.
“I’m very excited to come into Grand Central,” Bruce Caulfield, co-owner of the transit watering gap, instructed reporters Monday. “I’ve already hired staff.”
“I grew up on 50th St., I grew up in this neighborhood.” Caulfield mentioned. “Grand Central, to me, means a lot.”
The glistening white hallways of Grand Central Madison — the Lengthy Island Rail Street terminal buried deep beneath Grand Central’s Metro North tracks — has been with out industrial tenants for the reason that concourse first opened in January 2023. The station’s 32 storefronts have as a substitute been papered over with generic photographs of purchasing scenes, and hungry commuters’ solely choices have been a small collection of kiosks — and no the place to sit down — whereas they wait for his or her practice.
However the station’s depth brings with it some limitations — key amongst them no means to vent cooking fumes to the floor.
“We’re not going to have french fries and hamburgers like we did at Penn station,” Caulfield mentioned, including that the pub may have “more of a small plate menu.”
Tracks had initially been slated to open this time final 12 months. However these plans have been waylaid by purple tape from state liquor authorities and building difficulties, based on Caulfield.
MTA management had initially deliberate on filling out the remaining storefronts by hiring a so-called “master tenant” — one agency whose job can be to sublet and handle retail areas on the transit company’s behalf.
David Florio, the MTA’s actual property honcho, mentioned Monday that his group was presently negotiating with potential tenants for 3 extra storefronts — offers he hoped to carry to the MTA’s board throughout the subsequent few months.
As well as, the MTA is presently soliciting companies for 4 extra retail areas, Florio mentioned.
“We’re hoping to slowly roll these out over the next year or two years,” he mentioned.
