In summer 2016, Manhattan’s Chelsea will see one more gallery, Alexander & Bonin, leave the neighborhood as rents in the area rise. Chelsea’s loss is a gain for Tribeca, which is home to a growing number of arts venues.

Alexander & Bonin Gallery, which shows highly respected artists including John Ahearn, Mona Hatoum, Emily Jacir, and Doris Salcedo, will decamp to 47 Walker Street. Run by partners Carolyn Alexander and Theodore Bonin, the gallery has resided on Tenth Avenue at 18th Street since 1997. Architects Bade Stageberg Cox will design the new, larger space, which will take up over 7,000 square feet and span two floors.

The future home of Alexander & Bonin.
Photo: via Google Maps.

The gallery is just the latest to leave the neighborhood. Andrew Edlin was on the same block in Chelsea for 13 years before moving to the Lower East Side earlier this year. Bitforms also moved to the LES in 2014. Casey Kaplan left for the Flower District in 2014. And the area lost several art fairs in 2014 with the change in ownership of the former Dia building on 22nd Street, which housed the Outsider Art Fair and the Independent fair—which is also moving to Tribeca.

The High Line elevated park and the new Whitney Museum of American Art have helped to elevate real estate costs in West Chelsea, which now even has a Starbucks.

The downtown neighborhood is home to other art venues, several of which have launched or moved there in the last few years.

After 15 years on 18th Street, Postmasters moved in 2013 to 54 Franklin Street, two blocks south of Alexander & Bonin’s new venue. In 2012, Soho stalwart Artists Space launched a new venue, Books & Talks, at 55 Walker Street. The National Exemplar, which opened in 2011 on East 54th Street and then moved to lower Broadway, now resides at 59 Franklin.

On the other hand, Art in General, which has been at 79 Walker Street since 1981, recently announced a move to Dumbo, in Brooklyn. DNAinfo recently reported that neighborhood favorite Raccoon Lodge and various other businesses are being priced out or evicted; the bar’s 59 Warren Street home is being razed to make way for a luxury tower.

Will we soon hear about other venues being priced out of the neighborhood? Time will tell.