Balloon Museum Floating Into Seaport’s Tin Building

The air has been let out of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s troubled Tin Building food hall, which is set to be replaced by the Balloon Museum.

Lux Entertainment signed a lease with the Seaport Entertainment Group for the entire 54,000-square-foot space at 96 South Street in Manhattan’s Seaport District, the Commercial Observer reported.

The space will be home to the U.S. flagship of the Balloon Museum, an exhibition focused on inflatable art. The museum launched in Rome five years ago and has hosted exhibitions in Lisbon, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.

There were no leasing brokers involved in the five-year lease and the asking rent was not disclosed. In the fourth quarter, the average asking rent for retail space in Lower Manhattan was $228 per square foot, according to CBRE.

The arrival of the Balloon Museum spells the end for the food hall opened only a few years ago in the former Fulton Street Fish Market. In comments to Eater, Vongerichten blamed the permanent closure on the lack of density needed to support the market, adding that SEG plans to relocate restaurants around the district.

The development of the food hall — in partnership with Howard Hughes Corporation — resulted in six full-service restaurants, four bars, six counters, retail and private dining space, costing a combined $194.6 million. It was a hemorrhaging venture, losing $33 million in 2024 and $83 million over its life through that year, according to financial records.

SEG is adding to its experience-centered tenants. The owner last year signed a lease with Meow Wolf, an art company focused on interactive and immersive exhibits, for 75,000 square feet at Pier 17, the borough’s largest retail lease of the year.

— Holden Walter-Warner