A new accessible street entrance is coming to the Long Island Rail Road’s Grand Central Madison Concourse, located at 45th Street and Madison Avenue, within the next 18 months. The project will create a new entrance for tens of thousands of daily riders commuting via the LIRR and Metro-North.
“The new terminal access will create a more seamless experience for thousands of commuters and residents every single day, underscoring our commitment to enhance the quality of life in Midtown Manhattan,” said Hilary Spann, executive vice president of the New York Region of office developer BXP.
The new entrance is the result of a partnership between the MTA, which owns the land, and BXP, selected to redevelop the site in 2020, with construction beginning the following year.
The redevelopment plan is projected to generate more than $1 billion in ground rent and real estate tax revenue, which will support the MTA’s capital program.
“When the MTA moved downtown, we opened up a site for private-sector development in what is the largest and densest concentration of high value-added jobs in the United States, and now we have the ultimate in transit access, because we have all of the MTA facilities coming right to Grand Central,” MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement on Tuesday.
Currently, there are five direct entrances to the street from Grand Central Madison’s LIRR Concourse, located at 42nd, 43rd, 44th, 47th and 48th streets. Additionally, two more entrances are planned for locations north of 47th Street, further enhancing access to Grand Central Madison.