Ideal Marketplace, a supermarket chain, has renewed its lease for the 14,770 square foot branch in New York's Chelsea district. The retail premises are located at 317 Ninth Avenue, between West 28th Street and West 29th Street, in a United States Postal Service (USPS) building that spans an entire city block. The USPS, which is actively operating at the connected 341 Ninth Avenue, owns the five-storey property.
Details on the Contract Extension and Market Development
Founded in 2007, Ideal Marketplace is an association of independent grocers and operates locations in New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia and Rhode Island, according to its website. The exact terms of the renewed lease for the Chelsea location are not publicly known. However, asking rents in the city's key retail submarkets have generally increased, according to a JLL report for the second quarter.
In the nearby Meatpacking District, average asking rents for retail space amounted to $329 per square foot during this period. The brokers involved in the renewal deal were not explicitly named. A spokesperson for Ideal Marketplace did not respond to a request for comment.
Historical Significance of the Location
The location of the branch extension, also known as Morgan South, is part of the city's historic USPS distribution centre. This extends across West 29th Street to the Morgan North building, which was recently restructured into a mixed-use property. Although the USPS leases most of its post offices, the postal service itself acts as a landlord. According to a 2020 report by the R Street think tank, the postal service owns 8,400 facilities nationwide.
Ideal Marketplace's decision to extend its lease in this strategically important location underscores the attractiveness of the retail market in Chelsea and the robust presence of USPS in real estate. This not only consolidates the grocer's position in a sought-after district but also contributes to the stability of the retail segment in Manhattan.
