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Food Halls Continue Marching In, Will Street Dining Last?, 5 Retailers Making Headlines and More

March 23, 2023

When does a food court become a food hall? When you add experiential features, a rotating roster of tenants, some games and possibly even alcohol. Food-and-beverage continues to be a crucial component of successful marketplaces, and smart landlords continue to craft new experiences to keep customers coming back.

The latest example is at Westfield Topanga in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley. The company is adding a 50,000-square-foot, indoor-outdoor food hall called Topanga Social with three full-service bars, aggregate multivendor food ordering, pickup, local delivery, a private event space and a speakeasy-style arcade. The leasing team has recruited popular Los Angeles specialty eateries — including ManEatingPlant, I Love Micheladas and Shrimp Daddy — to open their first permanent locations at Topanga Social, which will be part of a dining, entertainment and luxury retail district opening this spring.

Topanga Social’s outdoor dining patio at Canoga Park, California’s Westfield Topanga

Meanwhile, MRP Realty’s expansive community and entertainment development in Northeast Washington, D.C.’s Edgewood recently added Bryant Street Market at the base of a residential tower. The food hall specializes in cuisines from diverse cultures.

And a food hall including more than a dozen restaurants and bars will open at southwest Las Vegas’ UnCommons this year. Las Vegas is undergoing something of a food hall boom as even its casinos ditch their famous buffets in favor of extravagant food halls. Only eight buffets, of the 18 that existed pre-pandemic, remain on the Strip. Aria became the first to replace its buffet with a food hall, making the change during the pandemic shutdown.

Food halls also are appearing in dense urban infill locations. Minneapolis has seen six such freestanding food halls open in just four years. Eat Street Crossing, a 15,000-square-foot space in downtown’s Whittier is the latest. Most, including the 19,000-square-foot Market at Malcolm Yards in the Prospect Park neighborhood, have become Twin Cities destinations, giving local chefs a cost-effective way to test concepts and allowing entrepreneurs to get an affordable start on their businesses.

More Food Halls in the Works

Springfield, Massachusetts: City Official Proposes Downtown Food Hall
New Jersey: Legislators Consider Allowing Alcohol Sales at Malls
College Station, Texas: A Former Sears Store Will Become a 20-Eatery Food Hall
San Jose, California: CloudKitchens Plans Downtown Food Hall with Coffee Bar

Will Street Dining Last?

For a while after the pandemic, businesses were happy to surrender portions of their parking spaces to help neighboring eateries set up outdoor dining areas. Cities were also eager to shut down public streets to help set up outdoor dining zones. But as the pandemic era fades, these temporary dining areas are becoming controversial.

• In downtown Encinitas, California, some retailers complain that the city is setting aside spaces for outdoor dining through next year. Officials say that the program is popular overall and has extended visitors’ stays downtown but that they will reconsider it in another four months.

• In the smaller town of Cedartown, Georgia, officials are rethinking programs that had set aside prime parking spaces for the dropoff and delivery service that boomed during the pandemic.

• The St. Charles, Illinois, City Council voted not to renew Flagship on the Fox’s outdoor dining program that shut down the street in front of the restaurant.

Stamford, Connecticut, on the other hand, is keeping outdoor dining but raising the stakes. It made its StrEATerie program permanent but dramatically increased the charges restaurants must pay.

5 Retailers Making Headlines

BruMate — which makes cups, coolers, drink sleeves and other barware — is opening its own physical stores after selling online and through wholesale accounts for years. One of the first will open at Pennsylvania’s King of Prussia mall this year.

Foot Locker plans to close 400 North American stores, representing 10% of total sales, by 2026: 200 locations in what it considers to be C and D malls and 200 underperforming stores in A and B malls. However, it also is developing a “store of the future,” starting with a New York City location in 2024. The prototype will be more inclusive and will emphasize digital connectivity.

GameStop earned its first quarterly profit in two years, after a concerted effort to remake its real estate portfolio and increase its online business.

Rue21 named the former GNC CEO Josh Burris as its own CEO, replacing Bill Brand. The apparel brand has 651 stores.

Zara will open 30 U.S. stores by 2025 and will revamp at least a dozen existing stores, according to the fast-fashion chain’s CEO.

Yesway Names Chief Real Estate Officer

Private equity firm Brookwood Financial Partners named its president, Thomas Brown, to serve as chief real estate officer for its Yesway convenience store brand. Brookwood has raised $190 million in equity to fund the building of 28 new stores in 2023. Brown will direct all real estate related activities for Yesway, including identifying potential sites and convenience store acquisitions and overseeing the firm’s store remodel, raze-and-rebuild and new-to-market construction initiatives. Brown will remain president of Brookwood Financial and will continue to serve on its executive and investment committees.

Thomas Brown

By Brannon Boswell

Executive Editor, Commerce + Communities Today

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