MTA loses $2.4M in Grand Central rent payments over temperature spat

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has lost close to $2.4 million in rent at Grand Central Terminal because it couldn’t get the contractually agreed-upon temperature quite right for restaurant tenant Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur, the Post reported. According to a report, the MTA lowered the future rent payments of Metrazur by $1.7 million and returned another $625,000 after realizing that it couldn’t keep up its end of the bargain, reached in 1998, to keep the temperature on the dining balcony between 70 and 75 degrees. In that year, the terminal underwent renovations and the restaurant moved in with a 20-year lease. By 2005, the restaurant was fed up and confronted the MTA, which ultimately resulted in the rent reduction. [Post]