Terms of Apple's Sweetheart Deal for Grand Central Terminal Retail Store Revealed

The New York Post reports on some of the details of Apple's contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for its Grand Central Terminal retail store, noting that Apple received an extremely favorable deal for the space compared to other tenants at the terminal. Among the most significant concessions made by the MTA was a lack of any revenue sharing from what has been estimated to be a potential $100 million per year sales location.

But while real estate insiders estimate the shop will rake in $100 million a year in sales, Apple won’t be sharing a nickel with Grand Central’s operator, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The tech giant is the only retailer in the fast-growing retail transit hub to have such a sweet lease.

Critics likewise note that Apple’s $60-a-square-foot lease is well below what many other tenants are paying — including a future Shake Shack burger joint that will be shelling out more than $200 a square foot, according to the leases, copies of which have been obtained by The Post.

All other tenants at the terminal with the exception of a Chase ATM branch pay a percentage of their sales to the MTA once an agreed-upon threshold has been reached. The MTA has apparently been willing to sacrifice such an arrangement in order to land Apple as a tenant, projecting that the company's presence will drive increased sales at many of the over 100 other retail stores at the terminal.

Apple's Grand Central Terminal retail store (Thanks, Tom!)