[NYguy]

https://therealdeal.com/2018/08/24/t...-headquarters/

The MTA is still spending millions to maintain its empty headquarters
Agency spends roughly $4M a year on 341, 345 and 347 Madison Avenue





August 24, 2018

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is spending about $4 million a year to maintain its empty former headquarters in Midtown thanks to a dispute between the city and state.

The agency announced that it planned to sell or lease the 20-story complex at 341, 345 and 347 Madison Avenue back in 2011, and in 2016, it developed plans to lease the headquarters to Boston Properties for 99 years, according to the Wall Street Journal. MTA officials estimated that the deal would be worth about $1.3 billion, and Boston Properties hoped to build an office tower rising up to 900,000 square feet on the site.

However, the city opposed the deal because the terms said the developer would pay the MTA rather than pay real estate taxes to the city. The MTA expected those payments to be worth $961 million for the length of the lease.

The MTA hopes to resolve these issues soon, and although some said the poor relationship between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo was behind the dispute, MTA Chair Joe Lhota told the Journal that this was not the case.

“There has been nothing acrimonious about our negotiation and interaction,” he said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/mta-sti...ate-1535059609

During Mr. Prendergast’s tenure, hundreds of MTA workers were moved into the authority’s offices at 2 Broadway in lower Manhattan so that the headquarters—spread across three adjoining buildings at 341 Madison Ave., 345 Madison Ave. and 347 Madison Ave.—could be sold.

The MTA announced its intention to sell or lease the 25,000-square-foot parcel of land in 2011 as it struggled to recover from the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

In April 2016, the MTA said it intended to lease its headquarters to Boston Properties Inc. for 99 years. At the time, MTA officials estimated that the deal was worth almost $1.3 billion, according to authority documents.

The size of the deal was made possible, in part, because of a change to city zoning laws near Grand Central Terminal that allowed Boston Properties to demolish the headquarters and raise a much larger building in its place. In an earnings call that summer, Boston Properties Chief Executive Owen Thomas said the firm expected to build up to a 900,000-square-foot office tower.

On a recent weekday, one worker sat behind a desk in the building’s empty lobby while another worker sat on an office chair in front of an elevator bank.

A few shoppers drifted in and out of two clothing stores at street level. A third storefront sits empty, with a New York City Marshal’s notice dated June 2017 pinned to the window.

Two blocks south, a sign of what could one day replace the MTA headquarters is taking shape. One Vanderbilt, a planned 1,400 foot tower, is rising on the corner of 42nd Street.

People familiar with the MTA deal say that the city and the state are edging toward an agreement that will give the city a share in the development.