"They're dead meat" -- and the celebrities who complained about living near a meat warehouse

As Eater reported on April 8, Pat La Frieda's West Village Meat Warehouse was put on the market for $31 million.

In an article titled "They're dead meat," the Post took a closer look at the La Frieda's warehouse, which has been there for 30 years. A few excerpts:

A lot of people would like to see us out of here. We don't fit no more," La Frieda said as he gestured toward the luxury apartments that have sprouted around his warehouse just south of the district.

and...

...La Frieda no longer feels welcome, with noise complaints from ritzy neighbors piling up and city-issued tickets during loading and unloading totaling $84,760 last year.

and...

Actress Eva Mendes and one of the Olsen twins, who briefly owned a penthouse across the street, were among the star-studded cast of complainers, La Frieda's son Pat Jr. claimed.

and...

The La Frieda warehouse was put on the market for $31 million last month, and boutique hoteliers Ian Schrager and Peter Moore have expressed interest, Sotheby's broker Robson Zanetti said.

In its heyday, 250 wholesale butchers chopped meat within the dozen blocks officially known as the Gansevoort Market. By 2003, as men in snug tennis sweaters started outnumbering those in bloodstained aprons, the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation counted just 35 butchers.

In the past year, at least nine meatpackers quietly moved out.

As for the lack of the district's namesake businesses, "It doesn't make a difference to me. I didn't even know this area existed four years ago until I came," said Mario Cameron, controller for the warehouse's new owner, Robert Isabell.

The exodus leaves only seven butchers in the district, all inside a city-owned co-op with a lease set to expire in 2014.

For further reading:
Interstate Food, Inc.: Vanishing (Jeremiah's Vanishing NY)