Dallas' Neighborhood Goods to Open First New York Store in Building Where Oreos Were Invented

Neighborhood Goods, which said in February it's taking the big leap of opening its first store in New York, has found a space in the city's Meatpacking District.The Dallas-based startup, which is attempting to come up with a new type of department store, opened its first location in Plano's Legacy West in November.Later this year, Neighborhood Goods will open a 4,500-square-foot store in Chelsea Market, a food hall that boasts more than 5 million visitors a year who come to eat, drink at shop. The market is on the ground floor of the 1.2 million-square-foot office building that also houses Major League Baseball, the Food Network and Google offices.Google paid $2.4 billion for the building in early 2018.The New York Neighborhood Goods store will be smaller, about one-third the size of the Plano. There's also a 3,000-square-foot basement that was a restaurant and its kitchen will be used for some kind of food and drink concept in the store, said Matt Alexander, co-founder and CEO.It's a high traffic neighborhood, Alexander said, and a storied building where Nabisco invested the Oreo cookie in 1912.Alexander said the store will give new brands a low commitment way into the expensive real estate market. While retail rents have declined recently in New York, prices are still high. The average rent in May was about $277 a square foot in the Meatpacking District, down 12 percent from a year ago, according published reports of the Real Estate Board of New York's bi-annual rent report. That compares with rents of around $15 to $25 a square foot in Dallas.  Continue reading...