Fulton Transit Center ups security over crime concerns — but issues linger as MTA legal battle rages
The Fulton Transit Center in Lower Manhattan upped security over crime concerns — but tenants say there are lingering issues and uncertainty about the future even though things have gotten better.
Four months after more security was added to the hub, employees of various stores saying extra guards and patrols have helped stem what appeared to be a wave of theft and crime.
But there are still some problems in the glass-and-steel complex at the corner of Fulton Street and Broadway amid ongoing legal battle between the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which owns the building, and retail giant Westfield Fulton Center, which runs it.
Despite the litigation — which is currently in mediation, according to federal court documents — employees of the center’s stores say things are a bit safer than before.
“It has gotten better now, because we have security,” one worker at the Gateway News Stand said. “It used to be worse in the past.”
That’s an improvement from March, when several workers and store managers told The Post that the place had turned into a den of tip-jar stealing, product-snatching thieves who had forced out several businesses.
Several attributed the change to the addition of at least one security guard per shift at Fulton, which opened in November 2014 but has struggled to attract and retain retailers.
On Tuesday, a pair of guards walked around the second floor, their eyes turned to the crowds.
When it opened, the gleaming, $1.4 billion transit hub a few blocks south of City Hall was a centerpiece of the Big Apple’s plan to revitalize the area in the wake of 9/11, which wiped out a significant amount of public transit infrastructure, court documents said.
The center also connects five underground stations and a web of nine subway lines that see up to 300,000 straphangers each day, according to the MTA.
But the swelling crime — as well as the uptick in homeless people, street hustlers and vandalism — is one of the reasons Westfield Fulton Center wanted out of the operator deal it struck with the MTA, court papers said.
Assaults and employee intimidation had become more and more common in the complex, which the MTA initially pitched as the next Rockefeller Center or Grand Central Station, the company claimed.
“Few businesses want to open and operate a store where their employees and customers regularly would experience theft, property damage, bodily harm, or threats thereof,” the company said in a March response to an MTA lawsuit demanding the company stay on as manager.
“As the safety and security of Fulton Transit Center continued to degrade, it became nearly impossible to attract ‘high quality’ subtenants, existing ones declined to renew their leases and some surrendered their leases early, and the remaining existing subtenants have begged Westfield for help,” it continued.
On Wednesday, the MTA said the two parties had agreed to a “detailed allocation of responsibilities” in the master lease agreement.
“The MTA has full confidence in the NYPD and local security agents for safety and security at the Fulton Center, and continues to demand that Westfield fulfill its lease obligations to operate the Fulton Center following the standards and requirements set out in the lease agreement,” agency spokesperson Joana Flores said in a statement.
A representative for Westfield Fulton Center declined to comment Wednesday, citing the pending litigation.
But even as Westfield looks to ditch its 20-year lease — which still has about 10 years left on it — people on the ground say the problems have lessened.
That’s not to say they’re done — a man named Daniel who owns the Dunkin’ said thieves still make off with little things.
“They’ll take a bottle of water and run,” he said. “It happens everywhere. But we have more security now.”
Others, such as a worker at the nearby Krispy Kreme, said the nighttime hours are the hardest.
“I hear from the people on the night shift, they come mostly at night around 8 p.m.,” the worker said. “Sometimes they’ll be wilding out. They steal from other stores [like] Duane Reade. They try to exchange whatever they steal for donuts.
“A few weeks ago, one of them threw a bag of Cheetos in a manager’s face because he wanted to exchange it for a donut,” he continued. “But they told him they can’t do that.”
The manager of bubble tea shop Gong Cha told The Post that he’s still running into issues with thieves trying to snag money out of the cash register or scam the place by claiming they didn’t receive orders they allegedly placed through DoorDash or Uber Eats.
“These crooks have taken their game to another level,” he said, before adding that the extra security guard has helped.
“I don’t think it’s enough, but that’s much better than before,” he said.
There are other complaints about Fulton, however, including weak air conditioning and glass doors that won’t open and close consistently.
This makes the temperatures inside mirror the temperatures outside — leaving some vendors steaming hot.
“They have not been working for a long time,” one said. “The MTA, every time they say they are going to fix, fix … but they never do anything. In the wintertime, we have to wear coats.”
The person also pointed to one part of the complex near the Broadway entrance, and said the air conditioning doesn’t work in that area.
“On this side, it doesn’t work,” he said. “You go by the liquor store, it works.”
“It’s not right,” he continued. “We pay a lot for rent.”
