The Future of Food Halls

The number of food halls in the US is expected to double by the end of this year and a panel at ICSC’s RECon 2019 event says the growth will not slow down anytime soon.

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LAS VEGAS—Five or 6 years ago, there were probably only 10 or 15 food halls. But today there is a huge demand and the growth is there. So said moderator Naveen Jaggi, president of Americas Retail Advisory Services at JLL, based in Houston, at the recent food halls panel at ICSC RECon event here in Las Vegas.

According to panelist Phil Colicchio, executive managing director of specialty food and beverage, entertainment and hospitality consulting at Cushman & Wakefield, there will be 450 food falls by 2020.

According to Colicchio, 20% of the current food hall footprint is in New York City, so that leaves a lot of room for growth across the country. “The future is bright. We are seeing a halo affect around food halls.”

But what makes a food hall successful? According to Colicchio, it is two things: design and operation. “We are living in a wonderful time in the US where there is great food in every city and town across the US. You will be able to curate local vendors in many of these spaces who will understand their communities and then you fill in the rest.”

And while curating the vendors is fun, according to Colicchio, if you don’t design well, and don’t operate well, you don’t have a good infrastructure. “We talk less about the kind of food we will have until we know who the designer and who the operator is.”

Panelist Will Donaldson, CEO of Politan Group, added that there are so many varieties to food halls and there are 100 different ways to do it. “The different context of the types of food halls out there is relevant to the real estate community because what works in one place doesn’t work in another. There are so many different ways that it works well. We focus on the individuals. We focus on being impactful on them because if we can take away on some of the brain damage for the chefs, they can create more time for their customers.”

As for panelist Eldon Scott, president of Urbanspace, based in New York, NY, he expects that there will be a lot of mistakes made on the food hall front. “People will pick locations where the sales will not be there. We cannot lose focus on that. We are a market operator and operate other small businesses. The key to success is sales.”

As for what drives those sales? Scott says that there are a million different factors to be mindful of, including picking the right location, whether it is sized correctly and if it is a stable business 12 months, two years, or three years out.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Garrick Brown, VP of the Americas and head of retail research, recently also put out a food halls report, which said that what began as a trend that was largely relegated to just a few markets, has since exploded. When C&W first reported on the food hall movement, the concept was still in its infancy.

Check back with GlobeSt.com in the next few weeks for a details slideshow with more from the C&W report. In addition, keep checking back for more in the coming week for wall-to-wall coverage surrounding the end of the Las Vegas ICSC RECon show and overall trends in the retail market. Also, take a look below at stories you might have missed below.

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