Art Gallery Takes Root in Flower District
Casey Kaplan Gallery Signs 10 Year Lease in Chelsea’s Flower Market
Rising rent prices in Chelsea’s gallery district have been stirring up conversation among art collectors about finding a new art hub within the city. Some individual galleries have already taken the initiative and migrated to various locations on their own. One such gallery, Casey Kaplan, has signed a ten year lease at 121 West 27th Street in the city’s dwindling flower district.
“It’s an exciting neighborhood that is in transition. The storefront wholesalers are moving on and new businesses are coming in,” Kaplan said to the Art Newspaper, “It’s also about being part of a [changing] nneighborhood and seeing what it’s going to become.”
With Kaplan’s statement about new businesses replacing the old, perhaps then, the question is not will there be a new gallery district in the flower district, but did the usual victims of gentrification just become one of the main perpetrators in Chelsea’s flower market?
The new space, 5,200 square feet on the ground floor and 5,000 square feet on the lower level is more than double the size of Casey Kaplan’s former location on West 21st Street near the Highline. The previous ground floor gallery was about 5,000 square feet in between 10th and 11th Avenues.
The space at 121 West 27th Street had an annual asking price of about $80 per square foot, as Jonathan Travis, an associate director with Ripco Real Estate representing Kaplan, reported to a New York real estate news site, whereas Casey Kaplan Gallery’s previous home was speculated by experts to be around $100 per square foot yearly.
Kaplan’s decision to move was not a solely financial one. He believes the move will help his gallery stand out from others still in the traditional district. He hopes that the variety of architecture and business in the area will make his gallery a destination for artists and art appreciators.
“We do a lot of work with art galleries,” Mariana, an employee at Starbright Floral Design, NYC, states, “so [Casey Kaplan’s migration] doesn’t really affect us,” speaking of her shop, that has been in business in the flower district for around twenty years,
Two other art galleries near the new site of Casey Kaplan, Planthouse and Broadway 1602, have been established in and near the city’s famous flower market and as leases near the Highline are up, Kaplan said more may be coming. He stated that four other galleries in the gallery district asked for his broker’s information and want to discuss the flower district with him.
Even the well-known and long-established Pace Gallery looking into the flower district to expand has been speculated.
The migration of major art galleries are no surprise, considering rent prices in the Chelsea area of the Highline and galleries easily range from $100 to $200 per square foot up to $1,000 per square foot. The art scene is often what interests wealthier individuals and businesses to move to their area and often the artists and art collectors that make up the scene are the among the first to go due to the resulted gentrification and rent increases.
Casey Kaplan Gallery is replacing a beauty and general merchandise wholesaler. “I think that the [companies] that are doing well will try and stay and pay more, but those that are marginal are going to close up,” Gabriel Bullaro, an attorney and broker familiar with the neighborhood, said to The Real Deal. “The real estate is too valuable and they can’t afford the rents.”
However, some veterans of the flower district see possible benefits from the gallery’s relocation. “Anything that enhances the area is good,” Bill of Bill’s Flower Market, 75 years in business and counting, commented, “The market has shrunk quite a bit.”
