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Apple Got Special Treatment for Grand Central Lease, Audit Says

Apple Inc., the world’s biggest company by market value, was given an inside track to win a lease for a store in Grand Central Terminal by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, an audit by New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found.

Apple and MTA officials negotiated the lease for more than a year before the agency asked companies for proposals on filling the space, according to the audit, which DiNapoli released today. Before that request was released in May 2011, Apple and Metrazur, a restaurant then occupying the space, had already entered a $5 million buyout pact, the auditors found. The MTA then required companies bidding for the space to pay the same amount upfront.