Antiques Garage, a 20-year-old flea market in Chelsea, is making way for a new development.
The market, which was started in 1993 in A Parking Lot On West 25th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues, will close on June 29. A new hotel by developer John Lam is slated to be built on the site, Crain’s reported.
The majority of Antiques Garage’s vendors will move their operations to the West 25th Street Market, an outdoor space about half a block away, the flea market’s owner Alan Boss told Crain’s. Other vendors will relocate to a flea market in Hell’s Kitchen.
In 2008, the flea market was almost pushed out of its space due to rising rents triggered by the arrival of big-name retailers in the area. When the site was in danger of foreclosure last year, then-owner Extell sold the garage to Lam for $67.5 million. Retail rents along West 25th Street are between $75 and $90 a square foot, sources told Crain’s. [Crain’s] — Claire Moses