Irwin Cohen, the inventive developer who transformed the abandoned factory where the first Oreo cookie was made in 1912 into Chelsea Market, a vibrant 21st century food bazaar that helped revitalize New York City neighborhoods, said Monday , died in Manhattan. He was 90 years old.
His son-in-law, Blair Efron, said the cause of death was pneumonia at the hospital.
To create the market, Cohen built the former National Biscuit Company factory, a 17-building brick building built in the 1890s that fills a block between Ninth and 10th Streets and West 15th and 16th Streets. (a complex of traditional buildings) has been reconfigured into an industrial-chic destination for gourmets. and is home to a video production studio.
The reuse of this factory spurred the gentrification of West Chelsea. It also helped transform the Meatpacking District south of the market into a hotbed of trendy venues. It ensured the success of the High Line, which rebuilt the abandoned elevated railroad west of Market as a lush ribbon-like park. And it set the stage for a proliferation of high-tech companies that rebranded the area as Silicon Alley.
“You couldn’t walk here,” Cohen recalled in an interview with the Center for Urban Futures, when he bought the West Chelsea property in 1993.
“It was managed 24 hours a day by prostitutes,” he said. “I looked at that and said my goal is for an 8-year-old to be able to come here on public transportation, shop and go home, and their parents feel safe. And that It worked.”
“It’s a big deal,” Carl Weisbrod, who was president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation when Mr. Cohen bought the former Nabisco plant, said in an interview. His specialty is creatively transforming old buildings and his market in Chelsea is a prime and unique example of this. It was the catalyst for today’s Chelsea. ”
Mr. Cohen and his daughter and business partner, Sheryl Cohen Efron, worked with architect Jeff J. Vandeburgh and sculptor Mark Menin to create the first floor of the labyrinthine building, which was designed by local People redesigned the adjoining meandering 800-foot-long central concourse. Vendors, including wholesalers who also sell to retail customers.
They abandoned plans to integrate local stores into the central flower market and instead decided to focus on food as a symbol of the city’s melting pot.
“The idea was to take advantage of New York’s ethnic diversity,” Cohen told The New York Times in 1999.
Since the market opened in 1997, ground floor tenants have included Amy’s Bread, Frank’s Butcher Shop, Sarabeth’s Bakery, Lobster Place, Lucy’s Bakery & Cafe and Fat Witch Bakery.
The building’s basement and upper floors were leased to Spectrum News NY1, Major League Baseball Productions, Food Network, and Oxygen Network.
Mr. Cohen managed apartment buildings and clothing manufacturing sites throughout the city. His company name, ATC, means “24-hour operation,” which is the environment he wanted to create.
“This building is a community, and he’s the mayor of Chelsea,” Stuart Romanoff, a Cushman & Wakefield executive who represented NY1’s 55,000-square-foot lease, said in 1999. told the Times.
Chelsea Market’s eclectic space is punctuated by the remains of the Nabisco factory, like a waterfall that flows from cast-iron ceiling pipes into a 24-foot well.
Mr. Cohen has developed and managed multi-tenant industrial buildings in Long Island City, Queens since the 1970s. At that time, he and his daughter purchased the former Nabisco factory (75 Ninth Avenue) and the Nabisco property across the street (85 10th Avenue). For $14 million with financial support from private investors. Jamestown Properties subsequently purchased a majority stake. In 2018, Google purchased 75 Ninth Avenue for $2.4 billion.
After selling the 10th Avenue property in 2003, Mr. Cohen and other investors bought it back for about $57 million. It was home to the now-closed steakhouse Frank’s and now home to the acclaimed Italian restaurant Del Posto, opened by mother-son team Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and Joseph Bastianich. Ta. (Del Posto was closed in 2021.)
Irwin Bernard Cohen was born on September 29, 1933 in Brooklyn. His father, Jack, was a seamstress with a contract sewing business and also owned a candy shop where Irwin’s mother, Molly (Lesnar) Cohen, owned a soda fountain.
After graduating from Tilden High School and working as a photographer to pay for his education, he earned a business degree from New York University in 1954 and a law degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1958. He joined a law firm that pioneered real estate syndication.
In 1957, Mr. Cohen married Jill Framer. She passed away in 2017. In addition to his daughter Sheryl, he is survived by two daughters, Cindy Zuckerblad and Kathy Lasry; 17 grandchildren. and 14 great-grandchildren. Predeceased by his siblings Bob, Norman and Gloria. He lived in Manhattan.
Inspired by a shark aquarium he saw at a Las Vegas hotel, Cohen installed an overhead aquarium with a clear bottom with an unobstructed view of macaw eels, salamanders, African frogs and crayfish at Chelsea Market. We wanted to alleviate the boredom of waiting for elevators. They wiggle, intertwine, and sometimes devour each other. When asked in 1997 why he wanted a reptile rather than a common aquatic creature, he replied, “Any fish can do it.”
But two years later, he admitted that the reptile display was probably one of the all-too-exotic design experiments on the market, perhaps the only one. Eels, salamanders, frogs, and crayfish have been replaced by more commonplace tropical fish.
“The others ate each other,” he said.