By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — First came dancing, now there will be dining, too.
The Chelsea neighborhood group that hosts Brazilian capoeira and salsa classes in the pedestrian plaza at Ninth Avenue and 14th Street now plans to bring a food vendor to the hotspot.
The Chelsea Improvement Company (CIC), a neighborhood redevelopment corporation, recently asked food companies to submit bids for the site, which already has seating, umbrellas and flowers.
The company hopes to have the winning food vendor up and running by mid-July, according to Ben Donsky, project manager for Biederman Redevelopment Ventures (which manages CIC).
Ideally, the vendor would serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, Donsky said. In the evenings, CIC hosts dance classes at the plaza.
CIC is also hoping to bring food to a section of Hudson River Park at 14th Street, where it operates evening yoga classes. That proposal is contingent on negotiations with the Hudson River Park Trust.
The new food plan is just one piece of CIC's broader mission of making southwest Chelsea as welcoming as possible for residents, workers and tourists, Donsky said.
That includes an array of streetscaping work. Last fall, CIC unveiled a prototype designer bench, made of a stainless steel base and carbon-steel plate seats, on a Tenth Avenue sidewalk across from Chelsea Market.
