On Monday, October 20, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP) President Joe Chan were joined by elected officials and community leaders to protest the deplorable conditions in and around 370 Jay Street—one of the most neglected MTA properties in the city—and at the Jay Street/Borough Hall station. Participating in the press conference were Council Member David Yassky, Assembly Member Joan Millman, Sam Ibrahim, general manager, New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, Michael Gold of Sid’s Hardware and Michael Nill of Brooklyn Friends School.

The city-owned, 400,000-square-foot building is vacant and littered with trash, and has been surrounded by unsightly sidewalk sheds and scaffolding for nearly a decade. The MTA has budgeted $150 million toward renovating the building for its back offices, but says it won’t be fully occupied until 2016. According to BP Markowitz and DBP President Chan, 370 Jay Street could be sold or leased to attract one or more major corporate tenants, including retail, and the savings used to close the MTA’s budget shortfall.

The New York City Transit Riders Council recently ranked 50 subway stations in need of improvements and Jay Street/Borough Hall, which serves nearly 30,000 riders daily, garnered the fourth lowest rating. It received a grade of “F” in the categories of odor, leaking ceilings, clean ceilings and leaking walls. It received a grade of “C” for lighting, clean floors, clean walls and litter.

“370 Jay Street and the Jay Street/Borough Hall station are, quite simply, a blight on the face of Downtown Brooklyn, the third largest commercial district in New York City—and don’t think for a minute that this would be tolerated in Downtown or Midtown Manhattan,” says BP Markowitz. “With the world coming to Brooklyn in growing numbers, we can’t allow a major transportation hub to greet visitors with peeling paint, leaking ceilings, and unsightly scaffolding. This section of Jay Street is an embarrassment—and our commuters, residents and local businesses deserve better.”

“The blighted condition of the Jay Street block and the subway station below contradicts and undermines the economic growth happening in the area and serves as a discouragement for additional investment,” said Downtown Brooklyn Partnership President Joe Chan. “We commend Borough President Markowitz and his colleagues in City and State government for making this issue a priority and join them in the call for the MTA to clean up this terribly neglected block and come up with a real plan for 370 Jay Street.”