Build a food hall, and they will come — if you do it right. But doing it right requires a lot of homework, cautions JLL in a new guide for those considering such a project.
“Food halls are complicated. They’re difficult to design, build, curate and operate,” reads the report, titled So You Want to Build a Food Hall? “With so many of them sprouting up, odds are that some will fail.”
Some of that homework means answering a lot of questions: Do you want to self-operate or hire an operator? Will there be a multitude of independent vendors in the food hall — as there are in Urbanspace, in New York City; Assembly Chef’s Hall, in Toronto; and Ponce City Market, in Atlanta? Or will all the concepts and stalls be run by one operator, like the setup in Eataly’s food halls?
"You'll have to think carefully through the many steps it will take to create one successfully from start to finish," says the report.
Eataly is a single-brand operator with food halls around the world, including six in the U.S.
More questions: Will the hall accommodate incubator concepts, or convenience foods geared toward office workers and others in a hurry? Are you looking for local concepts or established brands? Will you have anchors?
How will the stalls be designed — or are you leaving that up to the vendors? What types of leases will you deploy — long-term or short? Will you charge percentage rent or flat rates?
“In this report we lay out some of the major decisions you will have to make throughout the process of creating a food hall,” says JLL. “It will provide guiding questions on operations; identity-and-brand-building; design; and vendors, and it will help you prepare for major milestones.”
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
