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FOOD HALLS OF AMERICA
roughly 1.9 msf of space. As of Q3 2016,
there were 96 major food hall projects in
the U.S., totaling just over 2.4 msf. In a span
of just nine months, 26 new projects
comprising 503,000 sf were delivered.
Assuming projects currently under
construction and slated for Q4 2016
completion are delivered on time, the U.S.
will close 2016 with a total of 35 new food
hall projects totaling approximately
771,000 sf of new space.
Cushman & Wakefield is tracking 18 proj-
ects currently under construction (654,000
sf), nine of which are slated for delivery
before the end of 2016. Another 28 projects
are in the planning phase. These additional
projects will likely add over 908,000 sf of
additional food hall space to the market
through 2019.
That could just be the beginning. New
proposed projects are being added at the
rate of nearly one per week. Additionally,
our data gathering revealed multiple
projects being considered to which devel-
opers are seriously contemplating adding
food hall components. Note that these
developers were not yet comfortable
announcing their intentions. Most of them
are urban, high-rise office or residential
projects where developers are weighing
the addition of smaller (“bite-size”) food
halls as ground floor retail amenities. We
also came across a few larger food halls in
projects where details were still being
worked out or where developers again did
not feel ready to make announcements. In
total, there are roughly 15 such projects,
most of which will likely go forward, and
that could add another 400,000 sf of food
hall space to the mix.
We fully anticipate that the food hall
development pipeline will continue to
expand heading into 2017 and beyond.
While we expect to see continued growth
from full-sized food halls and some of the
mega-sized, single-purveyor models like
Eataly, this trend will also increasingly be
driven by mini-food halls. These projects of
10,000 sf or less are increasingly emerging
as the “go to” retail amenity of choice for
new urban high-rise office and/or
multifamily development.
Yet with so much growth attached to the
concept of food halls, the question must
be asked, “Can the marketplace support
this level of growth?” For now, we would
argue that the answer is yes, with some
caveats. Those caveats come down to the
two issues that we see as critical to the
success of any new food hall project;
quality and location.
The food hall as anchor mall
tenant is not only already a
reality, but one that will be
with us for years to come.
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CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD