Chelsea Market Is Trying to Expand Globally

New York City’s most famous and popular food hall Chelsea Market will soon be duplicated around the world. WSJ reports that real estate and investment company Jamestown plans to find at least one and possibly two more locations before 2018’s end. Exact locations are TBD, but the company is eyeing “emerging neighborhoods in Europe and the U.S.”

The news comes just after Jamestown finalized the sale of the Chelsea Market building to Google to the tune of $2.4 billion, a pretty penny more than the $790 million the company spent on purchasing it. The internet powerhouse has offices at 76 Ninth Avenue between 15th and 16th streets and has said that the market will remain the same, but despite the property sale, Jamestown still owns branding rights to Chelsea Market and plans to capitalize on it with its new influx of cash.

Chelsea Market opened more than 20 years ago, back when the neighborhood wasn’t quite as flush with commercial activity as it is now. Real estate prices have gone up dramatically in the last two decades in the neighborhood: Between 2016 and 2017 alone, asking rents per square foot in Chelsea have gone up 32 percent, the WSJ reports.

In that vein, Jamestown’s president Michael Phillips tells the Journal that the company sees the Chelsea Market expansion plan as building up other neighborhoods that, like Chelsea, were not previously centers of commerce. “We’re creating communities with amusement parks on the roofs and music venues and underground speakeasies to help people get dates,” he says.

It’s a strategy that developers across the country have been trying, with new properties getting anchored with other food halls. Though markets have proliferated like mad, Chelsea Market remains the most iconic one in New York — managing to attract tourists while maintaining a stellar reputation with locals for attractive food vendors like Miznon, Dizengoff, and Los Tacos No. 1.

• New York’s Chelsea Market Seeks to Replicate Success in Other Cities [WSJ]