Fulton Fish Market leaves Manhattan after more than 180 years

July 11, 2005

Since 1822, the Fulton Fish Market on South Street in Lower Manhattan has been operating virtually unchanged and surrounded by the ever-changing NYC. It is expected to be relocated to a new $85 million, 400,000-square-foot facility at Hunts Point in The Bronx beginning this week.

Originally set for January, the move was delayed until this month to allow time to add more safety and security items at the new facility.

Some restaurant food buyers expressed concern that a move to the new facility will raise fishmonger prices. Fish stall owners agree the move raises their overhead.

Rudy Washington, deputy to former mayor Rudy Giuliani, said that a plan by the city to open the fish unloading operations to a bidding process at the new facility could lead to mafia control. During Giuliani's tenure, Washington was in charge of the cleaning up the market of mafia influence.

The market has gotten fish from a Long Island company since 1995.