What will become of the closed Market Line on Manhattan’s Lower East Side?
That was the topic Tuesday night at a Manhattan Community Board 3 meeting at P.S. 20 on Essex Street. The privately owned commercial food hub, located below Essex Crossing at 115 Delancey St., has been shuttered since April.
The future of the barren site, owned by developers Delancey Street Associates, remains to be determined, but board members made it clear the city should take ownership of it.
“NYC Economic Development Corporation (EDC) should acquire the Market Line space in Site 2 and expand the Essex Market in a fully integrated facility as initially designed and built, creating one of, if not the largest, public market on the eastern seaboard of North America,” the board wrote in its resolution on the matter.
The Market Line — which is separate from the city-funded Essex Market — closed in the spring, citing post-pandemic-related difficulties, according to the news outlet Eater New York.
“That space at this moment is empty, and so in the spirit of this Community Board’s interest in Essex Crossing, we asked for the Business Improvement District (BID) to help us look at some alternative uses for the space,” said Damaris Reyes of Community Board 3.
One of those uses has been to return the Market Line to the EDC for $15 million so that the organization can “seamlessly” operate it with the nearby Essex Market.
“And there is the belief that the city will look at its survival and what is necessary for it to survive very differently,” Reyes said, noting that previously the Market Line was largely profit-driven.
Board members said a city takeover of the space would be ideal as it could expand the existing Essex Market, provide community space or host an array of other possibilities.
amNewYork Metro reached out to Delancey Street Associates, the current owners of Market Line, for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.
Despite the board’s support for city ownership, the EDC has no plans to take it over, an EDC spokesperson told amNewYork Metro.
“This past spring, NYCEDC was notified by Delancey Street Associates that they were unable to make the Market Line commercially viable due to the economic climate during and following the COVID-19 pandemic,” the spokesperson said. “The Market Line space, which is beneath the EDC-operated Essex Market, is privately owned and operated, and EDC has no plans to take it over. EDC will continue to support the Developer’s efforts to reposition the Market Line space.”
While most community members at the meeting seemed supportive or at least indifferent about the proposal, one attendee raised the possibility of giving the city “too much control” over what goes into the lot.
Based on its resolution, community board officials said that it is unlikely the city will yield too much power over the site, but adding a line that states the board wants to be involved in the selection process moving forward is also “not a big deal.”
