By the Numbers: The wave of new food halls hitting NYC

From the January issue: More than 500 years ago, Algonquin Indians were trading meat and crops on an area along the Hudson River in Chelsea. In 1993, developer Irwin Cohen paid $9 a square foot for a rundown complex on that same spot and four years later he debuted the Chelsea Market, a gourmet food and shopping hall. At the time, retail rents at the Chelsea Market were $25 per square foot. Today, they are well over $100 per square foot, according to news reports. And the Chelsea Market has spawned roughly a dozen food halls. These markets bring together a wide variety of trendy specialty foods into one culinary potpourri. Where else can you dine on an Iraqi pita pocket, a $17 lobster roll and Japanese-inspired tacos all in one place? [more]