7 ms·

Google NYC is literally right across the block from Chelsea Market. This transaction would mean that Google will occupy the real estate above the actual market.

Google NYC is literally right across the block from Chelsea Market. This transaction would mean that Google will occupy the real estate above the actual market. Chelsea Market is an amazing place with great offerings of food etc. As long as this transaction does not ruin the ecosystem of CM then New Yorkers are OK with this transaction. Lets face it who would not want to sell their real estate to The Google?

Touche 9y ago
There are other office occupants though, and it sounds like Google's going to squeeze them out. So the food offerings might stay, but it's going to begin to feel like a Google cafeteria.
- saalweachter 9y ago
  Do the businesses in Chelsea Market rely heavily on traffic from the office-workers above? Store-fronts in NYC tend to be pretty disconnected from the office/residential spaces above, with a few notable exceptions.
  - oplav 9y ago
    I don't think so. I work upstairs at a non-Google company. Most of the time, the market floor is filled with non office workers. The lunch crowd might suffer a little bit since Google employees won't need to go down for meals.
  - zohaibr 9y ago
    No, they don't. They get a ton of tourist business especially because High Line is right there.
  - aaavl2821 9y ago
    It's a great place but so busy that id be loathe to drop in for a working lunch. That place and the Rockefeller center concourse are some of the rare places in the world where getting lunch can be more stressful than work
  - zephraph 9y ago
    Not at all. It's always packed with tourists. Most of my coworkers and I go outside of CM to eat because it's pretty pricy.
  - locopati 9y ago
    I worked in the building as it transitioned from how it was to how it is. The ground floor used to be mostly shops and over time became food oriented, with more restaurants and fancy treat places, as they aimed themselves towards the tourist industry, which crowds that place like mad.
  - jowiar 9y ago
    Last time I went to Chelsea Market I got the feeling of "Nobody (local) goes here... there are too many tourists and the experience walking around here is miserable" Times Square-esque
    - CydeWeys 9y ago
      Yes, this is exactly correct.
    - epc 9y ago
      I live in the neighborhood. It's a nightmare to walk throthere during the day, but fairly quiet in the morning until 10. Also a decent place to pick up dinner after 6:00, especially if you enter through one of the side doors.
- zohaibr 9y ago
  MLB occupies some space. But they were moving to midtown in 2019 but their lease is until 2022. Bamtech (recently acquired by Disney is there). I don't know what's going to happen for us. We'll find out.
  - ionforce 9y ago
    > I don't know what's going to happen for us. Who is us?
    - oh_sigh 9y ago
      "BAMTech" aka the old live video streaming arm started by MLB. They were bought out by Disney, which will be using the tech as the backbone of their own streaming service which is coming out in 2020 or so
      - oplav 9y ago
        Disney's new ESPN streaming push (which is also powered by BAMTech) is launching this spring. https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/07/espns-streaming-service-will-cost-4-99-and-launch-this-spring/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/07/espns-streaming-service-wi...
- djtriptych 9y ago
  Google employees already eat for free at 5-6 internal restaurants within the Google office space. I used to work at Google NYC and would occasionally eat at a nice Thai spot in Chelsea Market but most of the time I'd just take the free lunch.
  - 52-6F-62 9y ago
    If the food is at least as good as Google Waterloo (alas, I was only visiting.), then holy hell—I don't blame you. Coming from a more traditional office (with a gradually updating for-pay cafeteria) I could hardly believe it. It was really great food with an active policy of reducing waste (with published counts).
    - cmrdporcupine 9y ago
      As a Google Waterloo employee I personally think much of the food at Google NYC is better, maybe the best I've had at Google. Not all of it, but some. There are certainly more options, as we have only one cafe here but there are many in NYC. But I haven't been there in 5 years, so I can't say that with certainty, things may have changed.
      - samstave 9y ago
        Google should recruit talent from youngsters by giving them a field trip to their various cafes. "work hard and study, and this will be the food you can eat every day" as a motivational trope
      - 52-6F-62 9y ago
        They had an enclosure containing an environment for growing micro greens you could pick yourself. lol. It wasn't for us I/O'ers, though. I was impressed, but maybe I haven't been spoiled yet. They did just have the one cafeteria when I was there, but I wouldn't talk it down. Waterloo isn't that large of an office, relatively speaking. I wouldn't be surprised that the NYC location is slaying Kitchener/Waterloo. I'd hope so! I think the last time I was up that way was pre-university drinking with friends in Guelph and at the Sleeman Brewery. It's a nice place, and becoming more of a research and development hub, but still has a way to go.
- CydeWeys 9y ago
  Why would it begin to feel like a Google cafeteria? We have actual Google cafeterias (including in Chelsea Market, on the eighth floor). Chelsea Market is a huge tourist draw. Googlers generally don't eat there because it's crowded and the food costs money. We do go out at night to The Tippler, a bar beneath the market, though. That definitely feels like an extension of Google space on weeknights.
djtriptych 9y ago
Google already occupies the majority of the space above the market - at least 3 full floors (As of a couple years ago). It's not much of a change for any New Yorkers except that they tend not to renew leases for other office space tenants.
- CydeWeys 9y ago
  New York Googler here. Chelsea Market is actually 19 different buildings on the same block that have merged together over time. The floor layout is truly crazy. Some floors are staggered by a full half height at the interface between buildings, there are exterior courtyards on the inside of the block that are roofed over, and buildings are of differing height. You can see it all on Google Maps; contrast with 111 8th Ave next door (where I sit) that is all one proper building. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7402908,-74.0061411,325a,35y,39.42t/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7402908,-74.0061411,325a,35y... And yeah, we already have a huge amount of office space in Chelsea Market, up to six floors now, and presumably buying the entire block made sense vs continuing to rent. Hopefully the ground floor marketspace itself won't be affected. I can't imagine we'd kick all that out, though. It wouldn't be a good look. Chelsea Market is an iconic tourist destination.
  - jagger27 9y ago
    So they're buying the entire block? $2 billion seems cheap all of a sudden. That hodgepodge mess of buildings really appeals to my inner Lego-building child.
    - eric_h 9y ago
      The building they purchased in 2010 (111 8th Ave) is a full city block that they picked up for $1.9 billion - seems to be the going rate for a block in Chelsea.
      - CydeWeys 9y ago
        Chelsea Market is 1.2 million sqft. 111 8th Ave is 2.9 million sqft, and the fourth largest building by floor area in all of NYC. Not only is Chelsea Market much shorter on average than 111 8th Ave, its land area is smaller as well. The buildings themselves are also older and less modern, thus worth less. 111 8th Ave is an absolute tank of a building. We got an excellent post-recession deal on 111 8th Ave. Chelsea Market looks to be at booming economy rates, hence paying about the same amount of money for much less.
aje403 9y ago
*As long as this transaction does not ruin the ecosystem of CM then New Yorkers are OK Want to highlight this :) Although, they're more than welcome to (quickly) renovate it and make the corridor wider...
oplav 9y ago
I'm pretty sure they are also doing some work on Pier 57, just past Chelsea Market. https://www.6sqft.com/construction-update-googles-pier-57-expansion-gets-glassed/ https://www.6sqft.com/construction-update-googles-pier-57-ex...
yakitori 9y ago
> Chelsea Market is an amazing place with great offerings of food etc. It really isn't. It's a tourist trap, especially with the completion of the High Line. The food isn't good and it's overpriced to take advantage of the tourists. > As long as this transaction does not ruin the ecosystem of CM then New Yorkers are OK with this transaction. Like new yorkers' opinions matters in manhattan. The only thing that matters in manhattan are billionaires - whether they be from california, israel, russia, china or anywhere else.
- bobthepanda 9y ago
  Agreed. CM ten years ago was a real neighborhood spot. CM five years ago was basically turning into the hipster version of Herald Square.
- jacobmoe 9y ago
  I always enjoy the food there. What's _not_ a tourist trap in Manhattan?
- huehehue 9y ago
  Oh stop the gatekeeping. I don't think anyone really believes Chelsea Market is a culinary wonder, or that it's catering to the True(tm) New Yorker. It's pretty, it's in a fairly nice area, there's no entry fee, and it's easy to have fun there if you take it for what it is.
  - notyourday 9y ago
    Fishmarket at the lobster place is mindblowingly good. Otherwise one needs to go to hunts point to get stuff this good.
    - vikascoder 9y ago
      Yeah don't know what the complaint is about. The lobster place, tacos stand, Vietnamese sandwich shop are all really good spots to eat. And not expensive
lobster_johnson 9y ago
Speaking of, I passed the Google building recently, and most of the windows have two protuding panels mounted horizontally. Can be seen here [1]. Anyone know what it is? Just solar shades? Or solar panels? I don't think I've seen this before. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7407095,-74.0017999,3a,75y,332.29h,121.55t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sih0-NREwvtJse3mVm8PPJg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dih0-NREwvtJse3mVm8PPJg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D84.03301%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7407095,-74.0017999,3a,75y,3...
- skosch 9y ago
  Just solar shades, likely – they look exactly like what my high school installed on the classroom windows many years ago, and those were purely for keeping the rooms from heating up too much in the high summer noon sun. Solar panels wouldn't make much sense, they aren't angled toward the sun's average position at all and would just shade each other out for most of the day.
  - puzzle 9y ago
    There is a telescope on the roof that tracks or is supposed to track the sun, though.

Touche 9y ago

There are other office occupants though, and it sounds like Google's going to squeeze them out. So the food offerings might stay, but it's going to begin to feel like a Google cafeteria.

saalweachter 9y ago
Do the businesses in Chelsea Market rely heavily on traffic from the office-workers above? Store-fronts in NYC tend to be pretty disconnected from the office/residential spaces above, with a few notable exceptions.
- oplav 9y ago
  I don't think so. I work upstairs at a non-Google company. Most of the time, the market floor is filled with non office workers. The lunch crowd might suffer a little bit since Google employees won't need to go down for meals.
- zohaibr 9y ago
  No, they don't. They get a ton of tourist business especially because High Line is right there.
- aaavl2821 9y ago
  It's a great place but so busy that id be loathe to drop in for a working lunch. That place and the Rockefeller center concourse are some of the rare places in the world where getting lunch can be more stressful than work
- zephraph 9y ago
  Not at all. It's always packed with tourists. Most of my coworkers and I go outside of CM to eat because it's pretty pricy.
- locopati 9y ago
  I worked in the building as it transitioned from how it was to how it is. The ground floor used to be mostly shops and over time became food oriented, with more restaurants and fancy treat places, as they aimed themselves towards the tourist industry, which crowds that place like mad.
- jowiar 9y ago
  Last time I went to Chelsea Market I got the feeling of "Nobody (local) goes here... there are too many tourists and the experience walking around here is miserable" Times Square-esque
  - CydeWeys 9y ago
    Yes, this is exactly correct.
  - epc 9y ago
    I live in the neighborhood. It's a nightmare to walk throthere during the day, but fairly quiet in the morning until 10. Also a decent place to pick up dinner after 6:00, especially if you enter through one of the side doors.
zohaibr 9y ago
MLB occupies some space. But they were moving to midtown in 2019 but their lease is until 2022. Bamtech (recently acquired by Disney is there). I don't know what's going to happen for us. We'll find out.
- ionforce 9y ago
  > I don't know what's going to happen for us. Who is us?
  - oh_sigh 9y ago
    "BAMTech" aka the old live video streaming arm started by MLB. They were bought out by Disney, which will be using the tech as the backbone of their own streaming service which is coming out in 2020 or so
    - oplav 9y ago
      Disney's new ESPN streaming push (which is also powered by BAMTech) is launching this spring. https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/07/espns-streaming-service-will-cost-4-99-and-launch-this-spring/ https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/07/espns-streaming-service-wi...
djtriptych 9y ago
Google employees already eat for free at 5-6 internal restaurants within the Google office space. I used to work at Google NYC and would occasionally eat at a nice Thai spot in Chelsea Market but most of the time I'd just take the free lunch.
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  If the food is at least as good as Google Waterloo (alas, I was only visiting.), then holy hell—I don't blame you. Coming from a more traditional office (with a gradually updating for-pay cafeteria) I could hardly believe it. It was really great food with an active policy of reducing waste (with published counts).
  - cmrdporcupine 9y ago
    As a Google Waterloo employee I personally think much of the food at Google NYC is better, maybe the best I've had at Google. Not all of it, but some. There are certainly more options, as we have only one cafe here but there are many in NYC. But I haven't been there in 5 years, so I can't say that with certainty, things may have changed.
    - samstave 9y ago
      Google should recruit talent from youngsters by giving them a field trip to their various cafes. "work hard and study, and this will be the food you can eat every day" as a motivational trope
    - 52-6F-62 9y ago
      They had an enclosure containing an environment for growing micro greens you could pick yourself. lol. It wasn't for us I/O'ers, though. I was impressed, but maybe I haven't been spoiled yet. They did just have the one cafeteria when I was there, but I wouldn't talk it down. Waterloo isn't that large of an office, relatively speaking. I wouldn't be surprised that the NYC location is slaying Kitchener/Waterloo. I'd hope so! I think the last time I was up that way was pre-university drinking with friends in Guelph and at the Sleeman Brewery. It's a nice place, and becoming more of a research and development hub, but still has a way to go.
CydeWeys 9y ago
Why would it begin to feel like a Google cafeteria? We have actual Google cafeterias (including in Chelsea Market, on the eighth floor). Chelsea Market is a huge tourist draw. Googlers generally don't eat there because it's crowded and the food costs money. We do go out at night to The Tippler, a bar beneath the market, though. That definitely feels like an extension of Google space on weeknights.

djtriptych 9y ago

Google already occupies the majority of the space above the market - at least 3 full floors (As of a couple years ago). It's not much of a change for any New Yorkers except that they tend not to renew leases for other office space tenants.

CydeWeys 9y ago
New York Googler here. Chelsea Market is actually 19 different buildings on the same block that have merged together over time. The floor layout is truly crazy. Some floors are staggered by a full half height at the interface between buildings, there are exterior courtyards on the inside of the block that are roofed over, and buildings are of differing height. You can see it all on Google Maps; contrast with 111 8th Ave next door (where I sit) that is all one proper building. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7402908,-74.0061411,325a,35y,39.42t/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7402908,-74.0061411,325a,35y... And yeah, we already have a huge amount of office space in Chelsea Market, up to six floors now, and presumably buying the entire block made sense vs continuing to rent. Hopefully the ground floor marketspace itself won't be affected. I can't imagine we'd kick all that out, though. It wouldn't be a good look. Chelsea Market is an iconic tourist destination.
- jagger27 9y ago
  So they're buying the entire block? $2 billion seems cheap all of a sudden. That hodgepodge mess of buildings really appeals to my inner Lego-building child.
  - eric_h 9y ago
    The building they purchased in 2010 (111 8th Ave) is a full city block that they picked up for $1.9 billion - seems to be the going rate for a block in Chelsea.
    - CydeWeys 9y ago
      Chelsea Market is 1.2 million sqft. 111 8th Ave is 2.9 million sqft, and the fourth largest building by floor area in all of NYC. Not only is Chelsea Market much shorter on average than 111 8th Ave, its land area is smaller as well. The buildings themselves are also older and less modern, thus worth less. 111 8th Ave is an absolute tank of a building. We got an excellent post-recession deal on 111 8th Ave. Chelsea Market looks to be at booming economy rates, hence paying about the same amount of money for much less.

aje403 9y ago

*As long as this transaction does not ruin the ecosystem of CM then New Yorkers are OK Want to highlight this :) Although, they're more than welcome to (quickly) renovate it and make the corridor wider...

oplav 9y ago

I'm pretty sure they are also doing some work on Pier 57, just past Chelsea Market. https://www.6sqft.com/construction-update-googles-pier-57-expansion-gets-glassed/ https://www.6sqft.com/construction-update-googles-pier-57-ex...

yakitori 9y ago

> Chelsea Market is an amazing place with great offerings of food etc. It really isn't. It's a tourist trap, especially with the completion of the High Line. The food isn't good and it's overpriced to take advantage of the tourists. > As long as this transaction does not ruin the ecosystem of CM then New Yorkers are OK with this transaction. Like new yorkers' opinions matters in manhattan. The only thing that matters in manhattan are billionaires - whether they be from california, israel, russia, china or anywhere else.

bobthepanda 9y ago
Agreed. CM ten years ago was a real neighborhood spot. CM five years ago was basically turning into the hipster version of Herald Square.
jacobmoe 9y ago
I always enjoy the food there. What's _not_ a tourist trap in Manhattan?
huehehue 9y ago
Oh stop the gatekeeping. I don't think anyone really believes Chelsea Market is a culinary wonder, or that it's catering to the True(tm) New Yorker. It's pretty, it's in a fairly nice area, there's no entry fee, and it's easy to have fun there if you take it for what it is.
- notyourday 9y ago
  Fishmarket at the lobster place is mindblowingly good. Otherwise one needs to go to hunts point to get stuff this good.
  - vikascoder 9y ago
    Yeah don't know what the complaint is about. The lobster place, tacos stand, Vietnamese sandwich shop are all really good spots to eat. And not expensive

lobster_johnson 9y ago

Speaking of, I passed the Google building recently, and most of the windows have two protuding panels mounted horizontally. Can be seen here [1]. Anyone know what it is? Just solar shades? Or solar panels? I don't think I've seen this before. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7407095,-74.0017999,3a,75y,332.29h,121.55t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sih0-NREwvtJse3mVm8PPJg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3Dih0-NREwvtJse3mVm8PPJg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D84.03301%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7407095,-74.0017999,3a,75y,3...

skosch 9y ago
Just solar shades, likely – they look exactly like what my high school installed on the classroom windows many years ago, and those were purely for keeping the rooms from heating up too much in the high summer noon sun. Solar panels wouldn't make much sense, they aren't angled toward the sun's average position at all and would just shade each other out for most of the day.
- puzzle 9y ago
  There is a telescope on the roof that tracks or is supposed to track the sun, though.