La Marqueta is a marketplace under the elevated Metro North railway tracks between 111th Street and 116th Street on

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...

in East Harlem in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Its official address is 1590 Park Avenue. In its heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, over 500 vendors operated out of La Marqueta, and it was an important social and economic venue for Hispanic New York. ''The New York Times'' called it "the most visible symbol of heneighborhood." It has since dwindled in size. The market was originally an informal gathering place for pushcart vendors and other merchants, but since 1936 it has been officially sanctioned, and vendors rent their stalls from the city. It was once possible to buy food, traditional medicines, recordings of Latin music, and supplies for charms and curses at La Marqueta. It was also the meeting place for the neighborhood after urban renewal displaced countless small businesses, replacing them with only large scale housing. Today, three of the original five buildings that housed the market have been burned or torn down, and a fourth is shuttered. As of May 2008, only four vendors were operating out of the last building, but the number later increased, reaching ten in early 2011."La Marqueta Vendors Cautiously Optimistic About Changes to Historic Market"
DNAinfo, January 14, 2011 The City of New York has repeatedly tried to revive La Marqueta but has failed to find a viable business model that also pleases local residents and politicians. The Harlem

Community Development Corporation A community development corporation (CDC) is a not-for-profit organization incorporated to provide programs, offer services and engage in other activities that promote and support community development. CDCs usually serve a geographic location su ...

, a state-run economic development agency, has proposed a concept called La Marqueta Mile. In 2010, the proposal won the support of the Center for an Urban Future. In 2009,

New York City Economic Development Corporation New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a nonprofit corporation whose stated mission is to "leverage the city’s assets to create beneficial jobs that drive growth. This ensures equitable and sustainable development across al ...

(NYCEDC) and the New York City Council issued a request for proposals for businesses to operate and maintain a 3,000 square foot commercial kitchen incubator in La Marqueta. In early 2011, HBK Incubates, a food business incubator run by Hot Bread Kitchen, opened in a space at La Marquetahttp://www.nycedc.com/project/la-marqueta that had been renovated with $1.5 million in New York City Council funds.

References

;Notes {{coord, 40, 47, 51.75, N, 73, 56, 39.82, W, region:US-NY, display=title Commercial buildings in Manhattan Shopping malls in New York City East Harlem Park Avenue