Flower Market seeks new roots

Real Estate Weekly, July 14, 2004

The Save Gansevoort Market Task Force, in collaboration with the Flower Market Association of New York City, announced the commencement of a major study to assess the feasibility of relocating New York City's Flower Market to the Gansevoort Meat Market district.

The study will be undertaken by a joint venture of Washington Square Partners, The Environmental Simulation Center, Ltd., AKRF, Inc., and Capalino Company and has been funded, in part, by a grant from the J.M. Kaplan Fund and through grassroots community efforts.

The concept of relocating New York's wholesale flower district to Gansevoort was first proposed by City Council Member Christine Quinn in 2001, when she urged the Flower Market Association to work with Save Gansevoort Market, an advocacy group that was ultimately successful in securing Historic District status for the meat market.

The Flower Market consists of approximately thirty flower businesses and forty related businesses, which gross more than $120 million per annum and employ more than 350 people in and around Sixth Avenue and 28th Street. While the market has flourished in this area for more than 120 years, zoning changes implemented in the mid-1990s have hastened the pace of residential development, resulting in an exodus of flower businesses.

Over the next few months, during Phase I of the Feasibility Study, the consulting team will define the physical and operational needs of the Flower Market to determine whether they can be met in the Gansevoort Market area. Special attention will be paid to parking and trans-shipment requirements as well as the compatibility of the Flower Market with the Gansevoort Meat Market Cooperative and individual businesses in the area.

The Gansevoort Market area has been home to the City's wholesale meatpacking industry since the late 1940s, when the municipally owned and operated Gansevoort Meat Market cooperative was opened.