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The food hall will appeal not just to the local residents, especially the college students from the nearby Johnson & Wales University, Providence College and Brown University, but also tourists, as the site is anchored on either side by both a Courtyard by Marriott and a Homewood Suites by Hilton. One Union Station’s current upstairs office tenants shall remain in place: Rhode Island Kid’s Count, a nonprofit group, and the broadcast headquarters for The Public’s Radio.
The Privi development, a project overseen by Stonecrest Resorts that will take over part of the 143,000-s.f. former Sears property in The Mall at Stonecrest in Stonecrest, Ga., will consist of a 50,000-s.f. food hall on the upper level, which will feature restaurant and beverage tenants curated by the hospitality group, Good Food & Company. The dining hall should be completed by spring of 2023. The first dining tenant announced is Atlanta Breakfast Club, and additional tenants hinted at include a wine and cocktail bar, an upscale fine-dining eatery, a karaoke concept and a sushi restaurant. The upstairs space will also accommodate retail tenants such as a bookstore, a cigar emporium and a high-end clothing boutique, in addition to such entertainment tenants as a comedy venue, a golf simulation concept, an ax-throwing facility and an escape room. The 50,000-s.f. downstairs portion of the Sears building will be for health and wellness brands, including a facial day spa, an oxygen and juice bar and a mixed martial arts fitness center, in addition to 18,000 s.f. of co-working space, including an event space area. The remaining 25,000 s.f. of the Sears building was leased to SeaQuest, an interactive aquarium and zoo that opened in November 2021. Stonecrest Resorts is hoping all of the changes, especially the elevated culinary and entertainment options in the food hall, will fill a much-needed niche not only for the upper middle class suburban residents of Stonecrest, but for the tourists visiting the greater eastern metro of Atlanta.
In downtown Columbia, a 13,000-s.f. food hall will take over the former Chapel of Hope building built in 1965 and is part of the 181-acre BullStreet District mixed-use redevelopment project, which is overseen by the Hughes Development Corporation. Dubbed the Sanctuary Food Hall, the space will feature up to 14 different vendors culled from the local community. Confirmed tenants include a sushi brand, a crepe eatery, a hamburger bar, a halal/soul food establishment and a pizza parlor. Creative Culinary Ventures, LLC, which also created the Marietta Square Market Food Hall in Marietta, Ga., will be responsible for the project, and other brands targeted for tenancy include a smoothie health drink bar, a bakery, a local coffee chain, a Mediterranean eatery, a BBQ brand and a chicken restaurant.
The food hall will repurpose elements from the existing church, such as incorporating the pews into seating, and is expected to be completed by late 2023. Plans include incorporating the outdoor space for additional seating and live musical entertainment. The chapel site overlooks other retail tenants, such as Starbucks and REI, and will be surrounded by upcoming apartment and condominium builds, including a 200-unit luxury apartment project within the Babcock building, a historic asylum structure built in 1885. Another historic building on the premises, the Ensor Building built in 1939, will house a 3,600-s.f. local restaurant, Publico Kitchen and Tap, expected to open before summer. The historical structures were all part of the South Carolina’s state mental hospital campus.
In El Paso, the city council in March approved an incentives agreement to Mills Plaza Properties, owner of the former Kress five-and-dime department store building, to transform a portion of the space into a food hall, expected to be completed by 2024. Built in 1938 in the Art Deco style, the building’s main floor, at 15,000 s.f., will house up to 12 or so food vendors, including a bar, that will all be locally known brands without a national presence. This will be the first food hall in the city of El Paso. Plans include the 15,000-s.f. second floor becoming a banquet/reception space for special event rental purposes, such as weddings, that will also feature a small arcade and gaming entertainment section. The basement space, also at 15,000 s.f., is expected to be leased to a salon/spa tenant. The former Kress building is next door to a hotel property also owned by Mills Plaza Properties, called the Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park, and a tunnel will be built to create an access point from the basement area to the hotel. The historical building is currently awaiting final approval to be on the National Register of Historic Places.
