Quincy Market, Boston's historic and spiritual place is about to be renovated.
Quincy Market is a top tourist spot, calling in 22 million visitors every year looking for a taste of the Revolutionary War history as well as classic New England clam chowder.
The granite-columned marketplace features counter service eateries and pushcart vendors selling Boston souvenirs, already got a face-lift back in the 1970s.
However, four decades after its previous renovation, the historic Quincy Market will yet again receive another face-lift-an idea that some vendors and groups are against.
Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., a New York-based real estate investment firm and holder of the market's lease since 2011, initiated that plan and plans to make an "urban oasis" that would attract residents and businesses into the downtown.
Included in the plan was installing the Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo on the top floor of Quincy Market, transforming existing office space in the South Market building into a new, 180-room boutique hotel and redesigning the building's crowded food court with more open space, sit-down restaurants and, possibly, moveable bars.
"We want to create something more whimsical.It needs to be a place where people just congregate. Where there's always something to do. Where everyone takes part in celebrating this public realm," said Barry Lustig, Ashkenazy's executive vice president.
However, vendors from the marketplace seemed unhappy about the iconic marketplace receiving an update/
"It's pathetic. They could tell us next week or next month to leave. It's no way to run a business," said Kostas Haralabatos, owner of Aris BBQ that has been in the marketplace for almost 40 years.
Similarly, Steven Jenal, who owns four family operated stores selling novelty and Boston-themed boxer shorts, socks and pajamas, said "the move to more upscale or trendy retailers as the Boston area economy enjoys a renaissance is unfair to the pushcart vendors that weathered the lean years of recession and have been there since the market's rebirth in the 1970s, when it was saved from demolition after years of neglect."
"For us, it's about keeping the marketplace affordable for local small businesses, which is what it was meant for," he said. "We're afraid of being lost in the shuffle," Jenal stated.
