After opening its massive food hall at Essex Crossing in the Lower East Side just 5 short years ago, The Market Line will be shutting its doors on April 1st.
The underground Lower East Side food hall experienced a recent wave of closings, including its anchor beer bar, the Grand Delancey.
Most of the tenants have already left, leaving just a handful of shops to deal with the situation and quickly find new homes for their businesses.
The Market Line was launched in 2019 with a blend of popular, traditional eateries such as Veselka and Nom Wah, as well as new and promising establishments such as Peoples Wine, which is a fusion wine bar and bottle shop established by the Wildair team.
The success of the Market Line has been one of our highest priorities from the beginning of Essex Crossing. Since the onset of the pandemic, we worked closely with Market Line vendors to help them weather a challenging economic environment, including providing rent abatements and ongoing rent deferrals. In the four years since Covid-19 and its effects on retail and food and beverage tenants, the Market Line and its vendors have continued to struggle. We have decided to close the Market Line with a target date of April 1. We are evaluating uses for the underground space that will be sustainable for the long term. This closure does not affect Essex Market, located on the ground-floor level and run by NYCEDC, nor other businesses throughout Essex Crossing. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Essex Crossing remains a community-oriented development decades in the making, a testament to the ongoing vitality of the Lower East Side, and a hallmark public-private partnership. Essex Crossing continues to be a dynamic and highly utilized destination with thriving businesses and welcoming fully occupied rental and condominium residences.
Cited among the reasons for the closing is the market’s architecture. Although it was initially deemed the “anti-Hudson Yards” due to being underground and Essex Crossing has been described as “one of the largest developments in the city,” The Market Line seemed to not be able to bring in the traffic that its caliber of vendors would seem to guarantee.
The Market Line is an independent marketplace situated downstairs from the city-funded Essex Market, which has moved to the Essex Crossing building across the street. Despite this, Essex Market will continue to operate and retain its original vendors, as well as the movie theater and housing units located within the building. The vendors at Essex Market have lower rental rates than those at The Market Line.