The owner of Chelsea Market, a popular food marketplace in West Chelsea, recently ignited a public furor when the city approved plans to add office towers to the squat structure. But before construction on the towers begins, the market now plans to expand by adding eight new spaces for vendors — all without changing the exterior of the neighborhood landmark.
A collection of industrial buildings that once housed the National Biscuit Company, or Nabisco, Chelsea Market will require no new space to house the new tenants, said Michael Phillips, a chief operating officer of Jamestown Properties, an acquisition and management firm based in Cologne, Germany, and Atlanta.
Instead, the space for the new stores was created when Amy’s Bread moved most of its baking operations off-site, leaving thousands of square feet open that, along with the conversion of a loading dock and an office, amounted to about 5,700 square feet of space, he said. Construction on the project has already begun and will not disrupt the approximately 35 current tenants of Chelsea Market.
In November, Jamestown received city approval to add two office towers to Chelsea Marketplace, one of them eight stories and the other seven stories, for a total of 300,000 square feet of space that could bring hundreds of new workers to the area, but construction on that project has not yet begun. The market fills the entire block between Ninth and 10th Avenues and West 15th and 16th Streets.
Leases are currently being negotiated for the eight new retail outlets, and though no leases have been signed yet, Mr. Phillips said he expected that the stores would be up and running by mid-February.
“We’re very focused on ethnic food and spices, and the whole beer growler, homemade beers and wine and spirits business, as well as local, New York-produced products,” he said.
Currently, the market carries everything from fine foods and baked goods to prime meats and fresh lobster, along with a smattering of books, flowers and kitchen and home décor goods.
Under the terms negotiated with the city for approval of the office towers, 75 percent of the vendors at Chelsea Market must remain food purveyors. All the tenants in space converted from Amy’s Bread will involve food products, Mr. Phillips said. A map of the project’s floor plan shows a possible bicycle shop and barbershop in the original loading dock and office space.
Amy’s Bread continues to have a presence at Chelsea Market in its reduced space, where it has a cafe, along with a small baking operation behind a glass panel so shoppers can watch baking demonstrations.
The area formerly occupied by Amy’s Bread is being built into small kiosks, much like an existing wing of the market where tenants like The Filling Station, Tuck Shop and Lucy’s Whey operate. In the new wing, however, the emphasis will be on cooking and food preparation. Two spaces will have food counters where people can sit and watch chefs cook while they dine.
“They’re really sort of fitted-out modern versions of a diner food counter with exhibition kitchens,” Mr. Phillips said.
Spaces will lease for about $200 to $400 a square foot, which is substantially more than typical rents in Chelsea, but the spaces are being delivered as almost completely turnkey, he said.
“They include power supply, water supply, hood systems for cooking, kitchen equipment where there’s cooking, so they’re basically plug-and-play spaces,” Mr. Phillips said. “The natural reaction would be, ‘Wow that’s a high rate,’ but when you look at what comes with it, it makes a lot of sense.”
The spaces are being set up to incubate start-up and smaller, less established businesses, Mr. Phillips said, companies that otherwise might find it hard to get a foothold in a neighborhood where retail rents have grown rapidly in recent years.
Square Feet: Before Building Towers, a Manhattan Market Plans to Add Vendors
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