New Amsterdam Market Founder Steps Down from Leadership Role

New Amsterdam Market founder Robert LaValva, in front of the former Fulton Fish Market's New Market Building where he had advocated for an expanded version of the market. It is also the site of a 50-story residential tower proposed by the Howard Hughes Corp. Photo: Allan Tannenbaum/Tribeca Trib

Robert LaValva, who founded the New Amsterdam Market in the South Street Seaport seven years ago, is stepping down as its president. A search is on for new leadership amid hopes that the market can be revived in the coming months, Roland Lewis, the chair of the market's board, said on Monday.

"We have a couple of different candidates for an interim director and are looking toward new market activity in the fall," Lewis said in a telephone interview.

As for LaValva, Lewis said, “We're very grateful for the amazing work he's done to date over the past two years, being a better leader and spokesman for the market. He's going to stay on the board of directors and help us manage the market.”

It was only last month that LaValva shocked even his board by announcing that he was ending the monthly markets, which were scheduled through December. He said a lack of political and financial support had made it impossible for him to continue. But last Friday he reversed that decision, saying an outpouring of support for the market changed his mind, and he hoped a way could be found to revive it.

In a telephone interview with the Trib on Tuesday, LaValva talked about his future with the New Amsterdam Market, which like the market itself remains uncertain. 

"I used to spend one hundred percent of my time on the market and now I've reduced that," said LaValva, 49, who worked without pay. "I’m spending more of my time reaching out to people and thinking about what I've done and what I might do next."

In the last couple of years, LaValva seemed to be most associated with the fight against Howard Hughes Corp. and its plans for redevelopment in the Seaport, a role he says may be diminishing because that advocacy "was slightly hurtful to the market and because we did have to put ourselves at odds with all sorts of people."

LaValva raised the ire of some last month, including Councilwoman Margaret Chin, when in his farewell email to supporters, he said that Chin "betrayed the community in favor of a suburban shopping mall developer, Howard Hughes." It was a reference to Chin's Council vote to allow zoning changes that would permit the developer to go forward with its plans to build a new shopping mall on Pier 17.

LaValva said he was speaking strictly for himself and not the market's board. Still, he now sees his political involvement and the movement he hopes to build against the Hughes Corp.'s presence in the Seaport as something that may be separated apart from the New Amsterdam Market.

"It might best grow wings and take off and be its own thing," he said.

In the meantime, LaValva said he wants to focus on the market's original mission of building a more local food system.  "Whatever the future of the New Amsterdam Market will be, I want to play a role in that part of its future."

Whether there is a future for the market remains to be seen. Lewis, who speaks for its board, sounded optimistic. "We'd like to be able to give it a go and be a voice for the better Seaport,” he said, noting that additional potential funds may come from a “wide variety of sources” including vendors, foundations and the board.

John Fratta, the chair of Community Board 1’s Seaport committee, had criticized LaValva for his sudden decision last month to end the market. But in a telephone interview, he said he was glad that LaValva would remain involved with the market.

“He has a wealth of experience to see that the market is a success,” he said. “We’re just very pleased that there are plans to restore the market and we hope that it will be successful.”

It has now been nine years since LaValva’s idea to “reinvent the institution of the public market in New York City” started to take hold. 

“Some people will remember that I did this, others won't," he said. "I guess the goal of anyone starting an organization is that you want it to live on beyond you.”