Locals Sound Off on Shuttering of 'Doomed from the Start' Tin Building

Two men arrive for lunch at the Tin Building on Tuesday, Feb. 24, to find that the food hall had abruptly closed permanently the day before. Photo: Caroline Sommers/The Tribeca Trib

Surprised, not surprised. That was the reaction of local residents upon learning on Monday, Feb. 23 that the Tin Building had abruptly and permanently closed its doors. Though many noticed that the high-end food hall had been all but a ghost town in recent months, the move seemed to come without warning.

“I wish I knew they were going to close,” said Rachel Miller, a regular at the unofficial dog park in the shadow of the now-shuttered business, Tin Building by Jean-Georges. “I literally would’ve stocked up on pastry.”

While many say they will particularly miss the café and bakery—the baguettes seemed to be a favorite—Gary Fagin, a longtime Seaport resident, pointed out a harsh reality shared by others.

“The whole operation was doomed from the start,” said Fagin, music director and conductor of the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra. “The developer’s idea of what works in this neighborhood is at odds with what works in this neighborhood.” And what does he think would work? Something “low-scale, local,” he replied, “not a high-scale celebrity chef.”

Hopes were high in August 2022 when renowned global restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten opened the 54,000-square-foot shrine to gourmet food, made possible by the Howard Hughes Corporation’s nearly $200 million restoration of the building. The Jean-Georges-branded Tin Building, formerly a long-vacant remnant of the Fulton Fish Market, featured six full-service restaurants, six quick-service food counters, and four bars.

At the opening, many, including this reporter, posed for pictures with a beaming Vongerichten. But the project quickly sputtered and, one by one, underperforming concepts were scrapped. Taco stand, gone. Flower kiosk, gone. Salad and sandwich counter, gone (replaced by a display of soda bottles). Two restaurants, Shikku, an upscale sushi bar, and Seeds & Weeds (later abcV, a satellite of the Jean-Georges vegan brand), also gone.

It was widely reported that the food hall concept was hemorrhaging money. According to widely reported figures, the operation was losing $100,000 a day. In 2024, it lost $33 million for its parent company, Seaport Entertainment Group (SEG), an entity spun off from the Howard Hughes Corp. Over its entire run, the Tin Building lost a reported $100 million.

Many feel the project was, as one resident put it, simply “Jean-Georges overload.”

“I have a bunch of his cookbooks and I love his restaurants,” said Noah Chasin, a Columbia University professor and 20-year Seaport resident who hosts a popular weekly trivia night at the Seaport bar Peck Slip Social. “But it felt like a sort of ego trip, shored up by an enormous amount of venture capital.” 

There’s also a sentiment that the Tin Building should have paid more homage to its fish market roots. Rather than feature $54 bottles of olive oil and $18 jars of jam in the retail market, Chasin said, citing examples of its pricey gourmet section, “there could’ve been an amazing fish and chips place. They could’ve done something that sort of built on the reputation of the Seaport.”

“There’s nearly nothing in there that’s original to the original Tin Building, except for Barbara Mensch’s photos,” Fagin observed. Mensch lived in the Seaport in the early ’80s and photographs from her monumental project documenting the nocturnal life of the market hung in a back area of the Tin Building where they saw little foot traffic.

One more recent transplant has a rosier view of the Tin Building’s offerings. “I’m so depressed,” said Molle Young, who has lived on Water Street across from the Seaport for the last two years. “Every flower, every piece of fish, the raw bar…everything was beautiful. It was like a jewel box for our neighborhood.”

In all, with the closing of the Tin Building, 132 people lost their jobs.

In 2025, Seaport Entertainment Group Inc. restructured its partnership with Vongerichten, transitioning it from a management to a licensing agreement. There’s talk of relocating some of the Tin Building’s more popular restaurants, namely The Red Pearl and T. Brasserie, to other spots in the neighborhood.

Notes taped to the outside of the Tin Building read, “We are incredibly grateful to our guests, team, and partners who made this chapter so meaningful. From day one to our final service, your support allowed us to build something we’re truly proud of.”

This isn’t the only recent commercial loss for the neighborhood. Since January, two other businesses in the area have also shuttered: Pasanella & Son Vintners on South Street, and Malibu Farms, a restaurant within the Seaport complex. SEG is said to be pivoting the area away from retail and moving toward big-ticket entertainment attractions. In the nicer weather, for example, Pier 17 is home to the Live Nation concert series. While that may draw crowds to the Seaport, concerts and high-end food and retail are not what many locals want.

“The last thing I’m doing is running to a celebrity’s restaurant,” said Michael DeRose, a five-year resident of the Seaport. “Tourists like that stuff, but New Yorkers don’t care.”

For his part, DeRose has begun construction of Willett’s (named for his dog), a sprawling bar and restaurant complex at 23 Fulton Street. Willett’s will house multiple drinking and dining options, including a café, wine bar, whiskey bar, and alehouse as well as a full-service restaurant. He believes that a bar-centric concept like his better suits both the residential and tourist market, “a place with soul where locals return weekly and visitors feel like they’ve discovered something authentic.”

That local population is growing rapidly. More than 10,000 new Financial District apartments will hit the market this year, mostly commercial to residential conversions; Streeteasy named FiDi the “number one” neighborhood to watch in 2026.

As for the Tin Building, nearly everyone interviewed said it would have been a perfect location for a Trader Joe’s. But it is not to be. Instead, the entire 54,000-square-foot space will be converted into the U.S. flagship home of the  Balloon Museum, an immersive, “Instagram-worthy” experience that had a temporary run in the city in 2023. Created by Lux Entertainment and based in Rome, the traveling exhibit features giant ball pits and inflatable lava lamps. It has had successful runs in London, Paris, Milan, Madrid, San Francisco and several other cities. Lux has signed a five-year lease for the space.

“Our goal across the Seaport is to introduce offerings that serve residents’ needs,” an SEG spokesperson told the Trib in a statement. “We continue to actively explore opportunities for additional grocery and market options in the neighborhood as well as adding a seasonal farmers market.” The Balloon Museum, the spokesperson noted, “is an exciting addition to the neighborhood because of their award-winning, family-friendly immersive art experiences and their team’s track record of building strong community ties through special programming with local schools and community organizations.”

DeRose, the future Seaport business owner, remains optimistic about the neighborhood in general, and the museum in particular. “From what I understand,” he said, “it’s quite the draw.”