Central Partnership
In 1989, the Grand Central Partnership proposed to turn the space under the viaduct, at the time a discount store, into a restaurant. Pershing Square would also be closed to traffic between 41st and 42nd streets. At the time, the space was occupied by discount retailer North Pole Stores, which relocated elsewhere in March 1992. The Grand Central Partnership decided to go forward with the restaurant-conversion project in 1993. However, the project had experienced difficulties because Manhattan Community Board 5 was opposed to the partnership's plan to close the adjacent block of Park Avenue, and the city had requested that the project undergo a lengthy zoning procedure called the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. The community board opposed the closure because, between Seventh Avenue and Second Avenue, the only opportunity for eastbound traffic on 42nd Street to make a right turn was at Park Avenue.