NYC’s Popular Chelsea Market At Risk Thanks To Google

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image: wikicommons

Food halls and markets are quite popular around NYC and one of the oldest ones I recall visiting is Chelsea Market.

Located at 75 Ninth Avenue, Chelsea Market is a great place to grab a bite or a snack with a variety of great options. (For awesome burgers and chicken sandwiches, I recommend that you give Creamline a try.)

The market is very popular with locals and tourists alike but the fate of the market could be threatened by Google.

The massive tech company already owns a building across the street and this morning, Eater wrote that, Google was close to purchasing Chelsea Market for over $2 billion!

The building is home to the Food Network, MLB and many other companies. I was surprised to read that Google is already the biggest tenant in the building. With the purchase, it’s expected that the company would take over even more space there.

(There’s 1.2 million square feet in Chelsea Market, with Google taking up around one third of it.)

At the moment, Google hasn’t announced any plans for the building or if they have any plans to make changes to the food hall and market. I sure hope that they don’t!

Eater mentions that in 2011 the building was worth $800 million.

Have you been to Chelsea Market? If so, what are your favorite vendors?

Find out more from Eater here.

6 thoughts on “NYC’s Popular Chelsea Market At Risk Thanks To Google

  1. Mike Jones- Defensive- about what? You should stop being so down on NY.

    Chelsea Market is the first of the current trend of food markets around the city. The only older one I can think of is Essex Street Market which is more a traditional market than food hall. Essex is moving into a brand new building…

    Many of the food halls offer a great variety of food options, all under one roof. If this is too trendy for you and not something you’re into, then don’t visit them. 🙂

  2. norman- That could be, who knows!

    JF- When a building gets a new owner you never know what their plans might be for it. Time will tell.

    Mike Jones- Chelsea Market might not be 75 years old but it’s the first of its kind that I can recall. Now, new food halls are all over the city. There’s still a lot to like about NYC, might not be for you but many others still enjoy the city.

    1. I lived in Mahattan from 1978 to 2004. Mahattan is this trendy place with no soul. It used to have soul and used to be affordable to live there. These new food halls are trendy blah.

      You said in your post it was “oldest ones” … 1997 it is not old. Why are you defensive? It is a marketing scam. Do not fall for it!

  3. Chelsea Market is not a OLD market. It was open in 1997!!

    The Disney of markets. Themed to make it look old! Tourist trap!

    All the unique stores in NYC are gone and what is left are banks and drug stores. Oh and a bunch of hipsters … yuck .. no reason to visit NYC!

  4. “at risk” is perhaps a bit dramatic…Google will have to honor existing lease agreements like any other buyer. Even after these expire, what suggests they’d displace ground level retail tenants for another purpose? Most office buildings in New York house retail on the ground level—always have. Why do you think Chelsea Market is at risk?

  5. Google’s been there for years now, and their giant letters dominate the upper floors. Most of their employees eat and shop downstairs – don’t bet on Chelsea Market disappearing.

    I imagine Google is optimizing their cost of operating in the building by purchasing rather than buying.

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