MTA converts unused Grand Central spaces into new restaurants and bars to offset budget gap

In an effort to generate additional income, the MTA is overhauling idle corners of the 113-year-old Grand Central Terminal for hospitality use. Plans include turning a 95-square-foot elevator shaft that opens onto Vanderbilt Plaza into a grab-and-go counter and converting a shuttered Chase ATM on the lower-level concourse into a bar and café. The centerpiece will be Osteria Centrale, a 250-seat, 8,000-square-foot restaurant slated to open this fall where a Rite Aid once stood, run by Vizz Group, which also operates Grand Brasserie and the Mercato Centrale market.

Additional proposals seek to enclose the Taxi Stand for a year-round bar and to revamp the Campbell Apartment lounge, currently managed by Scott Gerber, who is also bidding to run the space. The push follows a surge in Midtown East office development that has increased visitor numbers, while the MTA faces a $300 million budget gap for FY 2027 that could swell to $500 million the following year.