The owner of Grande Harvest Wines, Bruce Nevins, 68, whose wine shop occupies a storefront in a 960-square-foot space in Grand Central’s Graybar Pass has accused the MTA of rigging the bidding process of renewing his rental for his storefront after occupying the shop for 16 years.
According to Nevins, he transformed the shop from a rat-infested space into a radiant and popular storefront that has changed the face of business in the area for the past 16 years, but his lease expired last year and this came with another problem.
“I wouldn’t have done this if I knew we could potentially lose it all,” said Nevins of his decision to take a lease at Grand Central Terminal.
When its lease expired last year, Grande Harvest put in a competitive bid, including a 30 percent rent increase. The MTA had awarded leases to a single bidder before this time, and it appeared Grande Harvest’s lease was the only one MTA received at the time – according to the lawsuit filed by Grande Harvest against the MTA in Manhattan Supreme Court claiming the lease went to a different bidder “in secret,” without a public hearing.
But the MTA reopened the bidding process two more times because the agency wanted more competition – and ultimately solicited three more bids for the storefront. Grande Harvest had proposed for a $3.3 million bid, but it lost to 120 Nassau Corp Inc. which offered $5.4 million.
The case is now in court and scheduled for hearing, but the MTA insists it had done anything wrong but simply says it gave the lease to the highest bidder for the space.