“It’s made for people, not tourism”: Essex Market, Manhattan’s only public market, debates its future

Comparing Essex Market with a Barcelona, ​​Spanish or European market is “like comparing pears with apples”. Says Pat, a neighbor whose nostalgia for a Berlin kebab led him to walk 20 minutes this Thursday and visit the place for the first time. market on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to try Kotti Berliner Döner Kebab. He happily devoured one of his meals in the market’s dining area, set up on the upper floor, which at that time was to overflow of people, including many youths from a nearby institute.

This hospital employee, who defined as “very cool” the Essex Market, is not alone in seeing the uniqueness of this swarm with 36 positions and premises. The same idea was repeated in interviews with various market vendors and clients: everyone finds many more similarities between the markets of the old continent and the “green markets” like the one in Union Square, where several days a week farmers, farmers, bakers and all kinds of local merchants sell local products outdoors.

Essex Market, however, is something unique and precious in New York: a rarity with some gem. Is the most historic of its indoor markets; with a rich past, vibrant present and a future as full of possibilities as it is of questions.

The rich history

Essex Market is one of the six public markets remaining in New York City, which originally built a dozen to ensure that residents had access to fresh products. It is one of the three directly managed by the municipal Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC, for its acronym in English), along with La Marqueta in East Harlem and that of Moore Street en Brooklyn. The community group Alianza Lower East Side handles advertising and provides free community programs and seller services.

Its foundations sank in the 19th century, when the Vendor carts filled the streets from a neighborhood with a strong presence of immigrants. To remove unsanitary conditions and saturation of the streets, the alcalde Fiorello La Guardia had the vision of a indoor market network and that of Essex It initially opened its doors in 1940with four buildings and 475 vendors, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrantsto which would soon be added the Puerto Ricans.

For a time the sellers functioned as cooperative, but when the city began courting private investorsthe local community came together and together with academics, elected officials, progressive activists and urban planners managed to preserve it, ensuring structural improvements in management and facilities. When the EDC took the reins in 1995 There was a renovation and the market was consolidated into a single building, where it remained until 2019when moved to its current location, part of real estate development Essex Crossing, a modern complex with several skyscrapers and spaces.

The strong present

“There is not a day that I do not miss the old market”dice Andrew Clarke, owner of Essex Cheese, a cheese shop with a wide assortment of delicacies and imported products, from sherry vinegar to Torres crisps. “It didn’t make any sense and it made all the sense in the world. You could walk outside and not know what was there,” he recalls.

“Compared to Europeans, This one is a little more formal and a little more designer, but, you know, it’s New York“, he says smiling. And he speaks with affection and enthusiasm about the overall project. “The design of this market forces you to be very humanand that is very valuable. It’s more than a street with one store after another, where the merchants barely know each other,” says Clarke, originally from a small town in rural Pennsylvania and who has been working for 17 years in a store he bought seven ago when the original owner retired. “Among the vendors there are very different, interesting business models. And there is mutual appreciation and respect. I don’t know if it’s a community, but yes we are like a neighborhood”.

“Unlike the Chelsea Market, he Essex Market is made for people, not tourism. There are tourists but because there are tourists everywhere,” adds Clarke. He agrees Saat Bourkad, originally from Morocco, store owner Essex Olive and Spice and member of the market vendors board. He also moved from the previous building, where he opened his store in 2016, to the current one. And also speaking of Chelsea Market as “something impersonal, where there is quality food but there is no personal relationship or neighborhood feeling”, he stands out as one of the assets that Essex Market adds to the strong roots in the community and one customers which, in a city and an era of exorbitant tourism, is “between 80 and 85% local.”

Bourkadi says that, saving the distance, his is “the New York market with a more European look and feel, like Spain and the south of France“, territories that he knows well. This trained accountant praises that “there are regular clients, a personal relationship that is not easy to carve and build in New York”: “It is a wonderful and satisfying human experience”.

Among those regulars are Grażymaoriginally from Poland and a resident of the neighborhood, and her husband, Howardwho also came to eat on Thursday. “The old one had more personality, but This one has better space”says Grazyma, who was an interior designer and teacher and affirms that “Spanish markets have a beauty that this one does not have.”“But he is also grateful to have the Essex: “There are not many markets in New York. AND “With this one we are lucky”.

The business model

The Essex Market beats with a model of public ownership and management in alliance with the private. And Bourkadi assures that in the positions there are “very affordable prices and very high quality because some are paid very reasonable rents. Many vendors have been involved with the market for generations, some since the 90s, and that is wonderful.”

Although in the free market a commercial rental of Essex Market stall features could reach 1,200 dollars per square meter, the sellers They are paying on average less than 1,000y some those with more history pay just over 400 dollars.

The municipal Economic Development Corporation insists that the aim of New York public markets is not to make profits, but to provide access to healthy and affordable food. And Nevin Cohen, director of the Urban Food Policy Institute, told the Gothamist that the costs for the city, that according to some data lost less than $500,000 with the market in the last fiscal year, “they are modest “If they are compared to programs that give tax incentives to companies that put food stores in neighborhoods with little supply.”

Future of unknowns and possibilities

The future of the market as a nucleus for residents is still alive and full of possibilities, but there is no shortage of unknowns. All the ground floor is private property and an attempt to establish other stores and restaurants in that area failed. huge space without windows and full of columns. Partly due to the impact of the pandemic and its blows, and partly due to the excess of food halls in New York, closed in spring 2024 and the owners, Delancey Street Associatesare negotiating with Burlington Coat Factory, a discount department store chain, to settle there.

In the last meeting held on Monday by the neighborhood community boardone of the consultative bodies for citizen participation that advise the city council, a proposal was discussed that will be presented to the Zohran Mamdani mayoralty and that proposes opening a “collaborative process” to reactivate the space on the ground floor. Although it is difficult being privately owned, it plans to hire an external advisor to create a strategic plan for the next five years. The Alianza Lower East Sidewhose market services contract expires in June, wants an extension and assume daily management of the market that now falls on the city and in which they are seen maintenance problems, lack of staff y little use of part of the facilities. “We see Essex Market as a cornerstone for community development and we want it to continue leaving benefits for the community,” Tim Laughlin, president of the Alliance, said at the meeting.

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