New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s sweetheart deal for Apple's just-opened Grand Central Terminal retail store seems to be paying dividends for the MTA and neighboring stores. One restaurant is reporting a 7 percent increase in sales since the store opened in December.
Michael Jordan's The Steak House is located across the terminal from the new Apple Store, Grand Central and co-owner Peter Glazier says the restaurant has seen a 7 percent jump in sales in the seven weeks that the Apple Store has been open, reports Crains New York. Glazier also says the rise isn't because Apple replaced another restaurant, Metrazur, in the terminal. "The jump only happened after Apple opened," said Glazier, not in the several months that the space was being renovated as the store was built.
There was some criticism of the deal that Apple and the MTA worked out, most notably around the lack of a revenue sharing agreement which is standard for most tenants of Grand Central. Apple's $60-per-square-foot lease agreement is also significantly lower than what most other tenants are paying. The MTA argued that a flagship Apple Store would bring in significant foot traffic to the terminal, benefiting both other GCT tenants and the terminal as a whole.
The MTA has previously noted that for every 1% increase in sales across the terminal's retailers, the MTA will gain $500,000 in rent due to the percentage rent provisions in place on the leases of nearly every other tenant with the exception of Apple.
MTA's gamble appears to be paying off, for at least one establishment.
(Photo via Yelp/Chris F.)
