Who signs a $1.6 billion office lease when they’ve already got a perfectly good building at their disposal? The same geniuses who’ve managed to rack up a project 2009 budget deficit of $1.2 billion, that’s who. The MTA, which has possession of 370 Jay Street through its master lease with the city, started vacating the building in 2001, and since then has let structure and surrounding subway entrance deteriorate into a “disgraceful mess,” according to a recent newsletter from the Manhattan Institute. This despite numerous pleas from public officials. “For nearly five years, this building has been vacant, an empty shell amid the teeming life of the neighborhood and devoid of people, the area around the building has become a magnet for trash,” Borough President Marty Markowitz told the Brooklyn Paper last October. “If people’s initial taste of Brooklyn is a smelly subway stop and a dark, empty, trash-strewn plaza, it can’t help but color their impression.” The MTA now says it plans to renovate the building to the tune of $150 million and repopulate with back-office workers. Downtown Brooklyn Partnership president Joe Chan and Council Member David Yassky would like to see it turned into a small business incubator, a use more in line with the refurbished image of the Downtown area.
Blight by Government [Manhattan Institute] GMAP
No Love for MTA on Jay [Brownstoner]
Downtown to MTA: Sell 370 Jay St [Brooklyn Paper]
Photo from MTA Please Fix Jay