By HILARY POTKEWITZ
Three years ago, the city selected Delancey Street Associates to build the nine-block, $1.1 billion Essex Crossing residential, commercial and retail project on the Lower East Side. That’s when things went south for the vendors at the Essex Street Market, the indoor bazaar across the street that was created by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1940.
“Foot traffic has taken a nosedive, because everybody in the city thinks it’s already closed or is closing any day now,” said Rhonda Kave, owner of Roni-Sue Chocolates.
The developers have said the vendors would move to their new digs in 2018. But some won’t make it. Last year, four of the 25 vendors folded. Kave shuttered her booth in February after eight years to focus on her Forsyth Street store.