April 12, 2006
The glam and glitter of the Meatpacking District has two more victims at the crossroads leaving their establishments, Western Beef and Markt. As the vibe shifted and the terminally hip moved in south and west of Ninth Ave and West 14th Street, these two mega-spaces kept trying to age gracefully, but no Botox could save them. Because the rents have soared along lower Ninth and Tenth Avenues, now that new hotels, apartment buildings and stores are sprouting like weed trees underneath the High Line park. (The groundbreaking ceremony was two days ago.) Diane von Furstenberg has a major store opening later this year, and her husband Barry Diller's enormous media building is taking shape a few blocks north on West Street at West 18th Street. The meatpacking warehouses are next, make no mistake. Because once you pay up several hundred dollars per square foot of retail space (or millions for a condo or co-op), you really don't want those greasy sidewalks, smell of meat scraps, or refrigerated trucks rumbling down cobblestone streets at 3 a.m. Just as speculators took the Ho's out of SoHo, so too will the meat vanish from the Meatpacking District; that's Gentrification 101.
Tags:
barry diller, diane von furstenberg, markt, meatpacking district, western beef
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Posted on 4/12/2006
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