Inside New York City’s subway system is a mall waiting to blossom. That is the view of some transportation officials who have plans to fill thousands of square feet with underground retail.
Specifically, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is seeking to issue master leases for dozens of retail spaces at three hubs: Times Square, the 42nd Street bus terminal and Rockefeller Center, reports The Wall Street Journal. The inspiration for these hubs’ retail center potential comes mainly from the food and retail areas at New York City's Grand Central Terminal, as well as a shopping space created in an unused corridor at the 59th Street-Columbus Circle subway station.
A food hall and retailers at Grand Central Terminal offer a model for similar facilities at other New York City transit hubs
Janno Lieber, the MTA's chief development officer, told the newspaper that he would like to see a creative mix of tenants, rather than those typically found at a “run-of-the-mill, midrange, suburban shopping center.”
Officials also want to add retail at New York City's busy Port Authority Bus Terminal
One challenge, however, is that the hubs MTA officials are now viewing are anything but unused, and so shoppers could be competing with hundreds of thousands of commuters at rush hour.
One challenge will be the likely competition between shoppers and commuters for limited space
Currently, retail accounts for about $80 million in annual revenues for the MTA, with the retailers and restaurants at Grand Central Terminal contributing about half of that, according to The Wall Street Journal. As such, this represents a tiny fraction of the MTA’s $17 billion annual budget.
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
