Chelsea Market

75 9th Avenue | also 407 West 15th Street, 409 West 15th Street, 422 West 16th Street | Chelsea | built 1934

Open on the map10 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1898

    A bakery merger creates the National Biscuit Company, headquartered on this block

    Local bakeries on this stretch of Ninth Avenue merged in 1890 to form the New York Biscuit Company. In 1898 it combined with the Chicago-based American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company to create the National Biscuit Company, later Nabisco, which kept expanding its Chelsea bakery complex. Nabisco left for Fair Lawn, New Jersey, in 1958.

    Source: smithsonianmag.com

  2. 1912

    Nabisco invents and first bakes the Oreo cookie in its Chelsea factory

    The Oreo was invented and first produced in 1912 at the National Biscuit Company's bakery complex, the buildings that now make up Chelsea Market. In 2002 the stretch of Ninth Avenue in front of the old factory was designated OREO Way.

    Source: smithsonianmag.com

  3. 1932

    Nabisco's architect builds the Tenth Avenue factory around the High Line's elevated tracks

    Louis Wirsching Jr., Nabisco's architect at the time, is credited by Untapped New York with the idea of building the Tenth Avenue structure around an elevated railroad. The factory, erected in 1932, has an open porch on its second and third floors so the tracks could pass straight through. A skybridge across Tenth Avenue, added in the 1930s, linked the factory to offices on the far side.

    Source: Untapped New York

  4. 1997

    Irwin Cohen reopens the old Nabisco bakery as Chelsea Market

    Developer Irwin Cohen took over the foreclosed former Nabisco complex in 1990, taking on about $10 million in debt. After a redevelopment, Chelsea Market opened in 1997 with a food hall on the ground floor and offices above. In 2018 Google's parent company, Alphabet, bought the building for more than $2.4 billion.

    Source: smithsonianmag.com

  5. 1997

    May 8

    The New York Times calls Chelsea Market's blasted-brick, granite-slab interior 'primordial chic'

    Reviewing the new market in May 1997, The Times described a block assembled from 17 separate structures dating from 1880 to 1930 and unified by a red brick facade. Architect Jeff Vandeberg and developer Irwin Cohen had left the marks of demolition on show, including granite slabs weighing three tons and scarred by drills, and brick arches left looking blasted. Vandeberg said he wanted to keep the footprints of everything they uncovered.

    Source: Internet Archive

  6. 2006

    January

    Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto opens a Tadao Ando-designed restaurant on the Tenth Avenue side

    In January 2006 the restaurant Morimoto, owned by Food Network Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, opened on the market's Tenth Avenue side in a space designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. It stayed for 15 years, until 2020. The Food Network was also an office tenant in the building and filmed Iron Chef America and Emeril Live in the complex.

    “Morimoto, owned by Food Network "Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto and designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, opened in January 2006…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 2009

    The High Line opens along the market's Tenth Avenue side

    The High Line, a park built on the elevated freight railway that once ran directly into the factory building, opens its first section in 2009 along Chelsea Market's Tenth Avenue side. The converted rail line brings a steady stream of visitors past the former Nabisco bakery building. It ties the old factory into the city's newest public park.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2011

    Jamestown buys out its partners, including developer Irwin Cohen, for $225 million

    In 2011 Atlanta-based Jamestown bought out Angelo, Gordon & Co., Belvedere Capital and Irwin Cohen for $225 million, a deal that valued Chelsea Market at nearly $800 million. Cohen had developed the market in 1997 after spending only about $10 million on its foreclosed mortgage debt. By 2018 the building held 1.2 million square feet, and Google was already its largest tenant with about 400,000.

    Source: therealdeal.com

  9. 2012

    Jamestown wins approval for a six-story office addition over community opposition

    In 2012 the owner, Jamestown L.P., received approval to add a six-story office tower above the western portion of Chelsea Market, despite objections from community and activist groups. Construction had still not started by 2014. The market lies within the Gansevoort Market Historic District on the National Register, but the area the city designated in 2003 stops short of 15th Street.

    “…received approval to proceed with a planned 6-story office tower expansion above the western portion of the site…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  10. 2018

    Alphabet buys Chelsea Market for $2.4 billion

    Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., purchases the entire Chelsea Market building in 2018 for more than $2.4 billion, one of the most expensive single-building sales in New York City history. Google had already been leasing office space in the complex for its expanding New York campus. The deal ties the former Nabisco factory permanently to Google's East Coast operations.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 72 buildings with stories in Chelsea