MTA Will Keep Its Brooklyn Heights Office Next Year

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority office set up after superstorm Sandy could stay in Brooklyn Heights for another 10 years, according to recently-signed renewal of the lease.

The MTA has renewed its lease for the sixth floor of the 1 Pierrepont Plaza office building, the Commercial Observer reported. The 10-year lease will begin in March 2019.

MTA will pay $50 per square foot of the 47,042-square-foot spot, or about $2.4 million a year to start. The rent will then rise 1.25 percent each year.

Forest City, the group that owns the 19-story building, will also offer a "tenant improvement allowance" of $1.95 million with the deal to build out the space. Half of the allowance can be dispensed as a cash lump sum to be used as MTA wants, the story said.

The agency first moved to the offices in 2013 after superstorm Sandy and expects to keep working on Sandy-related projects for at least the next five years. After that, staff will be reassigned to other programs, including a program to repair the aging subway system and upgrade signals along all routes called "Fast Forward," which is expect to cost of $60 billion over 10 years.

Photo courtesy of Tim Lee.