Meatpacking District to lose last beef businesses as trendy nabe eyes new housing deal

The Meatpacking District’s last remaining meatpackers might soon give way to 600 rental apartments, a Whitney Museum expansion and new facilities for Friends of the High Line, Realty Check has learned.

The meat merchants, which once numbered in the hundreds, dwindled to a mere few in recent decades as the area drew luxury hotels, trendy restaurants and high-end fashion retailers including Gucci and Hermes.

Under an historic agreement with the Economic Development Corp., the last seven meatpackers in the Gansevoort Market Co-Op will move out  ahead of their 2032 lease expiration. They’re clustered in low-rise brick buildings on a 66,000 square-foot, city-owned parcel of land east of Tenth Avenue between the Whitney and the Standard Hotel.

Mayor Eric Adams’ “new vision” for what’s to be called Gansevoort Square includes “600 mixed-income housing units,” of which 300 would be affordable, as well as “a massive new open pavilion and the city’s next cultural and artistic hub.”

First deputy mayor Maria Torres Springer is expected to announce the agreement at a Monday morning gathering of the Association for a Better New York.

EDC president Andrew Kimball said the “mutual decision” for the meat market to leave “unlocks enormous potential to expand what is becoming a premier cultural destination for New Yorkers and tourists alike.”

Gansevoort Market president John Jobbagy said  “technological advances” had made the market’s processing facilities obsolete. 

“This opportunity [to leave] has come along at the right time,” Jobbagy added.

But what happens next was unclear. A source said the meat companies weren’t obligated to move out “until a project for the site is secured.”

And although the city has prioritized housing, an insider said the agreement gives the Whitney “right of first offer” over the entire site.

Whitney director Scott Rothkopf said the museum had “engaged in promising talks with the city and Friends of the High Line about a unique opportunity to expand onto a neighboring city-owned site.”

Friends of the High Line executive director Alan van Capelle said he’s had “early conversations with the City and the Whitney Museum” for additional space “to better serve the elevated park’s seven million annual visitors.”