Chambers Street (at City Hall) was once the heart of the New York City subway system in the early 1900s. It supposedly (according to articles in 2016 and 2018) was once called the “Grand Central of Downtown,” a reference to the busy Grand Central Terminal transportation hub. However, historical citations of that nickname have not been found.
 
The Fulton Center (a Lower Manhattan transit center and retail complex centered at the intersection of Fulton Street and Broadway, planned after the destruction caused by the September 11, 2001 attacks) has been called “Downtown Grand Central” and “Grand Central for downtown” since at least 2002, “Grand Central for Lower Manhattan” since at least 2003 and “Grand Central of Downtown” since at least 2004. It officially opened on November 10, 2014.
   
       
Wikipedia: Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter railroad terminal at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States. The terminal serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York, as well as to Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. The terminal also contains a connection to the New York City Subway at Grand Central–42nd Street.
           
Wikipedia: Fulton Center   
Fulton Center is a transit center and retail complex centered at the intersection of Fulton Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The name also refers to the $1.4 billion project by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a public agency of the state of New York, to rehabilitate the New York City Subway’s Fulton Street station. The work involved constructing new underground passageways and access points into the complex, renovating the constituent stations, and erecting a large station building that doubles as a part of the Westfield World Trade Center mall.
 
17 July 2002, Daily Record (Morris County, NJ), “WTC,” pg. A6, col. 1:
“For New Jersey residents, the ferry and the PATH connections are critical,” said Anthony Cracchiolo, a Manalapan resident overseeing the PATH reconstruction for the Port Authority. “It will be like a Grand Central Station downtown ... This was a long time coming.”
 
14 August 2002, Daily News (New York, NY), “Making tracks to new downtown” (editorial), pg. 34, col. 1:
But $750 million is what is proposed just to rehab and upgrade the Fulton St. subway station.
 
The new transportation center—including a Grand Central for downtown, as it has been dubbed—may require spending every penny of the $4.55 billion.
   
New York (NY) Post
KALIKOW CA$H COW – BLDG. NEAR TRANSIT HUB A WINDFALL FOR MTA BOSS
By Steve Cuozzo December 13, 2004 | 5:00am
Real estate mogul and MTA chairman Peter Kalikow has put 195 Broadway up for sale just as plans are kicking into high gear for the MTA’s spectacular new Fulton Street Transit Center across the street – a project that could help the famed “wedding cake” office building fetch a higher price.
(...)
The glass-domed complex, hailed as a “Grand Central of Downtown,” will simplify the tangle of subway lines that converge at Fulton Street and connect underground with the new PATH terminal at Ground Zero.
   
WNYC
Transportation Nation
Published by Transportation Nation
Fulton Center To Open Next Month
Oct 27, 2014 · by Kate Hinds
After years of delay, the Grand Central of downtown will open to the public on Monday, Nov 10.
 
The transit center, which sits at the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street, will be lower Manhattan’s largest transit hub. It was built to facilitate and simplify transfers between the tangle of nine separate subway lines running through the area. It will have air conditioning, open mezzanine space, digital signs displaying train information, and 65,000 square feet of retail.
     
Twitter
Bhushan Mondkar
@Bhushan_NYC
New York City went berserk when Fulton Center opened last week, but is it really the GRAND Central of Downtown? http://untappedcities.com/2014/11/10/6-things-to-know-about-the-new-fulton-center-transit-hub-in-nyc/
2:33 PM - 16 Nov 2014
 
New York (NY) Post
Fulton St. folly: MTA wasted $1.4 billion
By Steve Cuozzo February 2, 2015 | 8:58pm
Ten years and $1.4 billion down the drain — and they still couldn’t spring for a simple station map.
 
The MTA’s gold-plated Fulton Center comically fails at its core mission to “untangle” the “maze,” “labyrinth” and “catacombs” of four linked subway stations and nine lines. In fact, the complex may well be less navigable than its hated predecessor.
(...)
But in my many explorations since the November opening of the “Grand Central of Downtown,” befuddled riders have asked me time and again how to find the No. 2 and A lines — and even the street.
       
Untapped Cities—New York
April 5, 2016
Underground Tour of the NYC Subway!
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See the architectural ghosts of the now nearly forgotten, and partially abandoned, Chambers Street station then nicknamed the “Grand Central of Downtown”
 
New York (NY) Times
M.T.A. Delays: How Did the Subway Get So Bad?
By The New York Times
Feb. 20, 2018
(...)
One example: the Fulton Street station. It was the pet project of Sheldon Silver, the former speaker of the New York General Assembly. He wanted Fulton Street to be the Grand Central of downtown Manhattan — so he pushed through a plan that cost more than a billion dollars.
 
designboom
October 12, 2018
designboom explores the underground architecture of the NYC subway
(...)
he tour begins at city hall park, the birthplace of the entire subway system, where our informed guide points out visible elements of the decommissioned city hall station. after descending beneath the guastavino tile-clad arches of the towering municipal building, guests discover the architectural ghosts of the now nearly forgotten, and partially abandoned, chambers street station — once nicknamed the ‘grand central of downtown’. at this eerily quiet entrance, ticket counters have been boarded up with children’s artwork, while signage from a bygone era clings to the station’s historic walls.