The once-malodorous Meatpacking District now packs a sweet-smelling punch — especially at Ninth Avenue and Gansevoort Street, a corner that draws some of the world’s most prestigious fashion brands.
The next high-end arrival will be Italian brand MooRER, which will launch its first US store in time for the holidays at Romanoff Equities’ 73 Gansevoort St. The 3,400 square-foot Washington Street corner, at the foot of the High Line Park and steps from the Whitney Museum, was previously restaurant La Pecora Bianca
Colliers’ Thomas Citron, who represented the tenant, wouldn’t say what MooRER is paying. But data from the Real Estate Board of New York show that a next-door space at 63 Gansevoort is asking $550 per square foot.
The local Business Improvement District calls the zone “a fusion of grit and glam,” but what little grit remain is fast disappearing. As we reported, the few remaining meatpackers will soon leave.
The compact area is home to Gucci, Hermes, Loro Piana, Bottega Veneta, Diane von Furstenberg, Hermes — and soon to Baccarat, which gave up its uptown Madison Avenue digs for 33 Ninth Avenue.
Verona-based brand MoorER specializes in luxury outerwear and other apparel made in Italy. It has stores throughout Europe and Japan. The New York launch will spearhead expansion in the US. (The name MooRER was inspired by founder and CEO Moreno Faccincani.)
Citron credited Romanoff, the largest Meatpacking District landlord and developer, for making the deal possible. Because the site is within an historic district, Romanoff needed, and received, the blessing of the Landmarks Preservation Commission to create a storefront on Gansevoort Street, which previously had none.
If not for that, “I don’t think we would have landed there,” Citron said. (Romanoff was repped by Cushman & Wakefield’s Michael O’Neill.)
Several forces are driving Meatpacking magic. Although a few deals at prime locations commanded widely reported rents of up to $500 per square foot, rents are on average lower than in Soho — between $195 and $257 per foot in the first half of 2025, versus $621 per foot in tourist-trampled Soho, according to REBNY.
Unlike in Soho, Meatpacking has some large retail vacancies, especially on Washington and West 14th Streets.
Cushman & Wakefield retail division vice-president Steven Soutendijk noted, “Rents are slightly more affordable than Soho. I also think it’s a slightly different aesthetic feel — a little more authentic because of the history as an industrial area being more recent.” He cited the Whitney and the High Line as “great tourist anchors” and noted “There’s more food and beverage and nightlife than in Soho.”
Another factor, Citron said, was proximity to the West Village and West Chelsea, “high-demographic, high-income neighborhoods. Those people don’t travel uptown much.”
Citron added that Meatpacking spaces in former industrial buildings on cobblestone streets are “more unique with industrial edges, good ceiling heights and lots of columns.”
Meridien retail leasing president James Famularo said the district’s “flagship retail spaces are as much about storytelling as about sales.”
Even so, he cautioned, “Asking rents at over $500 per square foot leave little room for error on top of build-out costs, insurance, and taxes.”
