page_title: History of Grand Central Terminal
section_title: Planning
hierarchical_section_title: History of Grand Central Terminal / 1990s: Major restoration / Planning
caption_attribution_description: West balcony, main concourse, Grand Central Terminal, N.Y. Central Lines, New York
context_page_description: Grand Central Terminal is a major commuter rail terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, serving the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines. It is the most recent of three functionally similar buildings on the same site. The current structure was built by and named for the New York Central Railroad, though it also served New York Central's successors as well as the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
  Grand Central Terminal arose from a need to build a central station for all three terminals in present-day Midtown Manhattan. The magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt bought the Hudson River and New York Central Railroads in 1867, and created Grand Central Depot for the Hudson River, New York Central, and New Haven railroads in 1871. Due to rapid growth, the depot was reconstructed and renamed Grand Central Station by 1900. The current structure, designed by the firms Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore, was built after a 1902 crash between two steam trains had prompted a study of the feasibility of electric trains. The building's construction started in 1903 and it was opened on February 2, 1913.
context_section_description: In 1988, the MTA commissioned a study of the Grand Central Terminal, hiring the architects Beyer Blinder Belle, Harry Weese, and Seelye Stevenson Value & Knecht to create a master plan. The report found that parts of the terminal could be turned into a retail area, and the balconies could be used for "high-quality" restaurants. This would increase the terminal's annual retail and advertising revenue from $8 million to $17 million. At the time, more than 80 million subway and Metro-North passengers used Grand Central Terminal every year, but eight of 73 storefronts were empty, and almost three-quarters of leases were set to expire by 1990. The total cost of an extensive renovation was estimated at $400 million, which was considered an exorbitant amount. Minor maintenance continued to occur. By the end of 1989, the Kodak Colorama advertisements were planned to be removed from the Main Concourse, though the removal of the Colorama exhibit did not happen until March 1990. The MTA rehabilitated the Tiffany-glass clock at the south facade in 1992, giving the clock its first-ever complete restoration.
  By December 1993, the MTA was finalizing plans to sign a 110-year, $55 million lease on the Grand Central Terminal as part of an agreement to renovate the terminal. In the same transaction, the amount of retail space was increased from 105,000 to 155,000 square feet (9,800 to 14,400 m²). When Penn Central reorganized as American Premier Underwriters (APU) in 1994, it retained ownership of Grand Central Terminal. APU would later be absorbed by American Financial Group. The same year, the MTA signed a 280-year lease for the terminal with APU.
  In January 1995, the agency announced an $113.8 million renovation of the terminal, the most extensive rehabilitation in its history. Some $30 million was to come from Metro-North's capital allocation, the other $84 million through the sale of bonds. The MTA predicted that the renovation would be completed in 1998, and that the retail space would net $13 million in annual revenue the following year, increasing to $17.5 million in 2009. In preparation for the renovation, some three dozen shops were evicted from the terminal in late 1995 and early 1996. Simultaneously, the adjacent subway station was slated to receive an $82 million renovation.
caption: The western balcony in the main concourse c. 1910–1920; this was turned into a retail area during the 1990s
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