One
of the more popular sessions at the National Planning Conference last week was
one titled “Modern Food Halls: Redevelopment Aid or Trend?” The panel
discussion was led by Nicolia Robinson of Cooper Carry, an architecture, design
and planning firm based in Atlanta, Georgia. Joined by her colleagues Sarah
Jane Bonn and Daniel Sweeney, Nicolia led the discussion around one of the most
talked-about trends in cities across the country. She opened the floor with a
brief presentation on what the drivers of food halls were and attempted to
distinguish them from what many of us recognize as food courts and markets.
Food Trends
In
2015, there were only 70 food halls across the nation. Last year, the panel
cited that that number had risen quickly to 130, and by the end of 2017, we are
expected to see more than 200 food halls across America.
This
rapid growth in food halls, like restaurants, can be attributed to the rising
trend of eating out amongst consumers. In an earlier post, we wrote about the
fundamental and cross-generational shifts that have led to restaurant industry
sales surpassing grocery sales for the first time in history. For food halls,
the large proportion of millennials eating out more frequently is particularly
driving its rapid growth and popularity.
On
top of this, the panel claims that food halls are also meeting the needs of consumers
who are seeking more “sophisticated and authentic flavors and experiences while
dining out”. This has been echoed in recent media reports that claim consumers
are “demanding more variety, better quality food while also seeming fatigued
with the conventions and time investment of a multi-course, full-service meal”
at traditional restaurants.
Defining Modern Food
Halls
So
what exactly is this food hall we’re all talking about? While the panel from
Cooper Carry attempted to distinguish food halls from the traditional food
court and market by delineating specific traits for each of these places, the
lines began to blurry as they continued to dive deeper into case studies and
examples. Before we begin to dissect the discussion around the definition of
food halls, here are the characteristics the panelists attached to Food Courts, Markets and the newest hybrid, Food
Halls:
Food Court
|
Market
|
Food Hall - Marries
best of both food court and markets
|
Mostly
national brands
|
Mostly
local brands; mom and pop stalls
|
Both
local and national brands (mostly local)
|
Fast
food to fast casual
|
Ingredient-focused,
produce-heavy stalls
|
Curated
mix of tenants
|
Convenience
|
Plenty
of gathering space (communal aspect)
|
|
Few
retail options
|
Mostly
Retail
|
Balanced
retail and food
|
And here are the
different ‘Scales and Types of Food Halls’ that have been observed by the
panel:
|
Micro
|
Neighborhood
|
Destination
|
|
<10,000sf
|
10,000-30,000sf
|
30,000sf
|
|
Located
in mixed use development, usually in difficult spaces to lease out to other
operators
|
|
|
Food Halls
According
to the panel, there are some key elements that make a food hall a food hall. First, there is often a heavily curated experience. The trouble
with the ‘curated experience’ however has been that it is often targeted toward
younger consumers that are more educated and have higher disposable incomes. After
all, this is the demographic group choosing to live in urban, dense areas or in transit-oriented neighborhoods where these
food halls are often located – key element number two.
Although
this was not directly addressed by the panelists, several planners present in
the room were rightfully wary of the implications of the food hall’s curated
experience. Prices of meals at food halls, as one audience member noted, are
often high compared to other available dining options. The noisiness and bustle
of food halls also largely appeal to younger adults without children or elderly
companions.
Panelists
also noted that another key element is the detailed attention often paid to branding food halls as modern amenities
and advertising them on social media.
This seems troubling as it necessarily excludes certain groups of users from
food halls, for example traditional older customers or non- English-speaking
customers.
Finally,
food halls are supposed to have a variety
of authentic tenants. Although this was not clearly explained in the session,
I would hazard a guess that this was in reference to locally-owned businesses
with new food concepts.
There
appear to be a number of problems or inconsistencies with the food hall as defined
at the session. In fact, when the floor opened for discussion, many in the
audience jumped at the opportunity to ask about the foreseeable economic and
social impacts of food halls that was not addressed in the presentation. Issues
raised by audience members included insufficient parking and seating space for
large crowds, and finally, the elephant in the room – who are food halls for?
In
response to crowded spaces, Daniel Sweeney quipped that while seating can be
hard to find in these popular food halls, this can in fact be beneficial to
vendors. The busyness of the food hall creates a vibrant atmosphere for
visitors and makes the food hall appear to thrive.
However, when must
the line be drawn before the crowds begin to cause discomfort for regular patrons,
forcing them to find alternative options and potentially resulting in drop of sales for
vendors?
In
fact, Chelsea Market here in New York City already suffers this shortfall. As
soon as the food hall began to primarily serve tourists and attracted crowds of
out-of-towners (over
6 million national and international visitors annually), locals no longer found
the shopping environment conducive for daily needs. Today, many locals intentionally avoid this
former neighborhood jaunt. It appears as though food halls run the risk of
becoming a visitor attraction rather than a local neighborhood amenity. This
very issue raised red flags for me when the panelists started to use Essex Street Market as a case
study of a neighborhood food hall.
The Problem with the
Food Hall Label
In
the past few months, LOA has been working with the New York City Economic
Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to create a tenanting and marketing strategy for
Essex Street Market as it prepares to relocate to a new facility across
Delancey Street. LOA developed a strategic market positioning statement for
Essex Market that defined key customer segments before recommending strategies
for attracting new tenants and vendors.
Essex
Market is, by definition, a public market owned and managed by NYC EDC. It is not a food hall, nor does it aspire to
be one. The market is New York City’s oldest public market following Mayor La
Guardia’s efforts in the 1930s to clear the city’s streets of pushcarts and
build a network of modern indoor public markets. For more than 75 years, Essex Market
has been a fixture in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and an important source of
affordable products for local shoppers, from Latino and Asian immigrants, to
the new millennials who have recently began moving into the neighborhood.
The
mission of the market remains to serve the needs of low and moderate income
residents in the neighborhood and this can be observed by the mix of tenants at
the market. Vendors such as Saxelby Cheese Mongers and Essex Farm Fruits and
Vegetable for example accept EBT and offer products at low price points. Even as
the market expands in size at its new facility, prepared foods vendors will
remain a small percentage of the overall market tenant mix. Ingredients-based
purveyors will continue to make up over 70% of the market, including specialty
ingredients such as fresh coffee beans, American cheeses and traditional spices.
In
addition, NYCEDC and the Essex Market management team, will continue to remain
committed to scouting hyper local vendors to fill the remaining spaces at the
new facility with preference given to vendor applicants offering farm-related or
ingredients-based products. These tenanting strategies are intended to maintain
Essex Market’s position as a public market with retail that contributes to the
local community’s wellness through fresh, affordable food.
Although
the panel had intended on showing the audience a positive example of a publicly-managed
neighborhood food hall, they may have taken a leap altogether in labeling Essex
Market a food hall. Let’s take a look
at the criteria set by the panel for food halls and how Essex Market doesn’t
quite meet them:
|
Food Hall
|
Essex Market
|
|
Both
local and national brands (mostly local)
|
No national brands
|
|
Curated
mix of tenants
|
Curated to the
extent that EDC is maintaining 70% ingredients-focused, produce-heavy
purveyors
|
|
Plenty
of gathering space (communal aspect)
|
Yes in the new facility
|
|
Balanced
retail and food
|
No - 70%
ingredients-based retail
|
Given
that there are already some implications associated with food halls, we need to
be careful with the way we use the label. In a previous
post on food-based developments, we began to explore some of these negative
impacts.
“…when food-based developments do not serve
the wider community, it stands to run into accusations of causing
gentrification and rising property values. In Anaheim, California, where a
former fruit packing and distribution center was transformed into a food hall
dedicated to local vendors, it has quickly evolved into a selling feature for new residential
developments in the neighborhood. Broookfield Residential for example is hoping
to “attract young buyers with units priced between $300,000 and $400,000” in a
neighborhood that was once a sleepy town known only for Disneyland. Whether
intended or not, the Packing House food hall in Anaheim has led to huge inflow
of development into the neighborhood, raising prices of property in the area.
Furthermore, food
halls that only serve ready-made meals or chef-made meals are often too upscale
for the average customer. While they may help fill gaps in a food desert,
prices often prevent lower income bracket groups from accessing these
freshly-made and locally-grown foods since most prepared foods are not even
eligible for SNAP benefits.”
For all of the benefits food halls claim to have as incubators for small, local businesses and chefs, there are plenty of other players in the industry that are simply abusing the trendy name for profit’s sake. Let's not call it a
food hall, if it’s really a market or a food court.
