One of the last standing meat markets in New York City’s Meatpacking District could soon be converted into an extension of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Mayor Eric Adams said yesterday, October 28.
Adams, who was charged with bribery and campaign finance offenses last month, had announced a broader action plan to transform several New York City sites into “24/7 Live, Work, Play, and Learn Communities” in December 2022. Now, his administration is ending the lease of city-owned Gansevoort Meat Market co-op, which has operated for nearly a century, and is seeking to convert the 66,000-square-foot plot into “Gansevoort Square.” The development would include up to 300 affordable housing units, a public open space, and 45,000 square feet set aside for a possible Whitney and High Line office expansion, according to the mayor’s office.
Some city officials embraced the move as consequential in maintaining New York City’s status as a cultural powerhouse. Adams said in a press statement that Gansevoort Square would become the city’s “next cultural and artistic hub.”
The Whitney, which shares a lot with the meat market facility, reserved the Right of First Offer to purchase the space before it opens to the market, with a possible expansion in mind when it moved to the Meatpacking District in 2015.
If the museum makes an offer, the development would allow the museum to build a gallery and education spaces, the mayor’s statement said.
Scott Rothkopf, the Whitney’s director, said in a statement that a growing number of visitors brought in by its free admissions programs, including Free Friday Nights and a soon-to-come 25 and under fee waiver, will inform its decision. The institution claims it drew 300,000 new visitors in the last year alone under these programs.
A spokesperson for the museum declined further comment on the institution’s potential plans to expand or a possible timeline.
A spokesperson for Friends of the High Line confirmed to Hyperallergic that it has engaged in early talks with the city and the Whitney to expand its operations facilities to the new site, citing unexpectedly high visitorship and a need to stay on top of year-round programming.
The Whitney moved three times before landing its Hudson perch. Founded and opened in 1931 at West Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue, the institution later moved to a larger building on West 54th Street before heading to the Breuer building on Madison and 75th, where it remained until 2014.
Before the Whitney’s most recent move, the Gothamist reported in 2012 that the last independent meatpacker in the district — operating next to the museum building — was pushed out by its landlord, who looked to turn the space into a retail location as part of the neighborhood’s evolution into an upscale shopping locale.
According to preservationists, the plot where Gansevoort Market stands has been a food market since 1884, with three distinct owners changing hands over the past century and a half.
“With technological advances, our industry processing practices have changed, and the market building does not meet up-to-date standards for processing and distribution,” President of Gansevoort Market, Inc. John Jobbagy said in a press release. The market, he said, embraces the city overhaul as it searches for other facilities.
