As if it weren't enough that Jeffrey's Meat Market has left the Essex Street Market for good now, the Essex Street Market itself might pack up and move across the street! As part of the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), the fate for the 70-year-old market's footprint (if not its existence) has been up in the air for some time. And last night the New York City Economic Development Corporation for the first time laid out four options for what could happen to the storied market.
Those options are to a) build a new facility across the street that would quadruple the vendor space and offer more room and an outdoor space, b) stick with the status quo, c) save the existing facade but renovate the interior (which would take away vendor space), or d) keep the old market as is and build an additional market across the street. Realistically, however, only options a and c are politically and financially viable.
And the idea of moving the market, despite much opposition, is really not the worst thing ever. A new market building would allow more vendors and small restaurants like the Saxelby Cheesemongers and Shopsin's to enjoy the space's much lauded affordable rents.
Still, no decision has been made yet and one won't be made for some time. A formal SPURA plan isn't expected until 2012—which, when you consider how long SPURA debates have been going on for, is actually pretty soon! In the meantime, The Lo-Down snapped the above pics of some NOT REAL, JUST FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES renderings of the proposed new market building.
