Bloomberg
Farewell Chelsea? New Museum Begins to Draw Galleries to Bowery
By Michael Killeen
April 25 (Bloomberg)
A 160-foot-tall pile of big, stacked boxes clad in zinc-plated steel is rising above the fire-escape tenements and restaurant suppliers of Manhattan's Bowery. The New Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by the Japanese firm Sejima & Nishizawa/SANAA, expects to move into its new home by the end of the year. But the anomalous structure is already exerting a pull.
Around the corner on Freeman Alley, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, who operates Salon 94 gallery out of her townhouse on the Upper East Side, is renovating a 1,400-square-foot space to show art. The architect is Rafael Vinoly, who also designed her gallery uptown.
``The New Museum, in my mind, is going to be a major cultural destination. And so we will be a small space to visit at the same time,'' said Greenberg Rohatyn, adding that she runs a ``boutique-based business, always a little off the beaten track.''
Her new gallery, which will keep the original concrete floors and wooden beams, plans a soft opening this summer, with an official debut in September.
Why didn't she join the more than 300 galleries in Chelsea, Manhattan's major contemporary-art destination? ``It is hard to distinguish oneself in that area unless you have a super- gallery,'' Greenberg Rohatyn said. Downtown costs are a third of Chelsea, she added, ``although I see that is going to change very quickly.''
Those prices may hold for an alley location but vary around the Bowery.
Bowery Rentals
Space on the Bowery from the New Museum at Prince Street down to Delancey Street is about $85 a square foot, according to Nathan Stange of Susan Penzner Real Estate. Rents are ``more established going west,'' he said, reaching $125 to $150 a square foot on Spring and Prince streets.
Realtor Susan B. Anthony, whose firm focuses on galleries, said ground-floor space in Chelsea, if you can find it, ``is going for $80 to $85 a square foot.'' Available upper-floor gallery space, she said, ranges between $35 and $40 a square foot in Chelsea but awaits development in the Bowery area. Spaces east of the Bowery are $60 to $80 a square foot, she said, getting more expensive the closer they are to the New Museum.
Dealer Christopher Henry almost took Greenberg Rohatyn's Freeman Alley site. Then he found a two-story brick building with a low stoop on nearby Elizabeth Street he preferred.
Younger Clients
Henry opened his first gallery on West 29th Street in 2005, though rising rents and disappointing foot traffic on his stretch of north Chelsea compelled him to rethink his location. He liked the younger buyers he attracted when he exhibited at the recent Scope fairs in Miami and New York. Those clients not only responded well to the emerging artists he represents but supported his idea to move downtown.
Henry wanted a gallery with architectural character. The long-vacant annex to a Ukrainian Orthodox Church is now strewn with rubble, though the $100,000 conversion, he said, will leave the almost 20-foot peaked ceiling as it is: ``This space is too good to clutter up.''
One of this area's draws, Henry said, is that it's a real, lived-in neighborhood, with a history, convenient transportation and plenty of restaurants.
Henry has resided near the Bowery since 1986, when it was, he said, ``a ghost town.'' It's now thriving, though he thinks the museum will cause a seismic shift.
``The New Museum broke ground, the steel was going up -- this was a different kind of feeling, a different bell ringing,'' Henry said. ``I just kind of knew this was where I needed to be.''
The New Museum of Contemporary Art plans to open in late 2007 at 235 Bowery, at Prince Street, Manhattan. Information: +1-212-219-1222;
http://newmuseum.org .
(Michael Killeen is an art writer for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)
To contact the reporter on this story:
mkilleen5@verizon.net .
Last Updated: April 25, 2007 00:05 EDT