Magnolia Bakery Expanding Online

Good news, cupcake fanatics! Soon you will no longer need to join a Sex and the City tour and endure Magnolia Bakery's long lines (or scorn from locals). The Wall Street Journal reports that the bakery just signed a deal this week expanding its production with a 10-year lease on a 5,200-square-foot production facility in Harlem.

The new production space will certainly be helpful in meeting the increased demand for the product especially when they roll out an online store this spring. The bakery's co-owner Steve Abrams told Shelly Banjo of WSJ that the company is in "growth mode" and that they are scouting additional locations everywhere from New Jersey to Chicago. The ability to order the baked goods, including the legendary, buttery pastel-colored cupcakes from a mail-order catalog will accompany the roll-out of the online store. Mr. Abrams hopes with these new initiatives and the new production space that they will be able to "push out $10 million in merchandise and baked goods a year."

The building in Harlem joins other food-production facilities like Chelsea Market's Fatwitch Bakery and the Upper East Side Grace's Marketplace as part of a government initiative to create "an urban empowerment zone." WSJ reports that as part of the recent sale, Magnolia Bakery will receive property-tax incentives and possible energy-cost reductions and wage credits for employees.