CRAINS - $210M upgrade for Grand Central's subway unveiled

Three new staircases to the subway platforms, two new street-level entrances and a refurbished mezzanine level, including the opening up a series of enclosed spaces to create new hallways, plus a 4,000-square-foot ground-level "waiting area" for commuters: All that and more is being promised by developer SL Green as part of its planned five-year, $210 million effort to give Grand Central's subway station a significant upgrade.

What's more, all of that must be completed before tenants will be allowed to occupy the developer's new 1 Vanderbilt, the 65-story office tower planned for an entire city block just west of Grand Central, north of East 42nd Street. The transit improvements were hammered out with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the de Blasio administration earlier this year as the first piece in the massive midtown east rezoning project.

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