Two new food halls are set to make their debut in the city this fall, just as another, led by one of the biggest names in the culinary world, is scaling back its operations amid financial struggles.
At 424 Fifth Ave. in Midtown, in the former Lord & Taylor building, Texas-based operator The Food Hall Co. will open what it’s calling Shaver Hall.
Named in honor of Dorothy Shaver, Lord & Taylor’s president from 1945 until her death in 1959, the concourse will span roughly 35,000 square feet on the ground floor of the 13-story building between West 38th and West 39th streets, just below offices for e-commerce giant Amazon, which owns the building.
And at 124 E. 14th St. in Union Square, the new Time Out Market in the Zero Irving office tower will be the London-based media and hospitality company’s second in the city. It will take over about 10,000 square feet of space previously occupied by a different food hall, UrbanSpace.
Food halls endeavor to collect a number of buzzy eateries under one roof, allowing customers to try culinary delights from different vendors while the restaurateurs get the benefit of not having to lease an entire space on their own. But the drawbacks can be that the locations may seem solely like lunchtime options and fail to attract patrons for dinner or on the weekends. Also, offerings outside central business districts can fail to find foot traffic.
The operators of Shaver Hall and Time Out Market told Crain’s they think they have found their way around the pitfalls that have beset other high-profile food halls that have opened in the five boroughs in the past five years.
One such example is the Tin Building by Jean-Georges in the Seaport District, which has found itself in a “cash burn” since it opened in 2022, company executives at landlord Seaport Entertainment Group said on a recent earnings call. After reporting a $33 million loss for its share of the business last year, Seaport Entertainment Group announced this spring that it would close one of two commissary kitchens and scrap underperforming concepts to focus on the successful ones.
Other food halls to recently shut their doors include Citizens Market Hall, a two-level space at the Brookfield Properties-owned Manhattan West project, which shuttered in April; Gotham West Market in Hell’s Kitchen, which closed at the end of last year after more than a decade in business; The Market Line inside Essex Market in the Lower East Side, which closed last year; and Williamsburg Food Hall, an 18-vendor offering that shut down in March 2023.
Music on the menu
The team behind Shaver Hall operates two other such offerings, in Dallas and Nashville. In Nashville, the multilevel location features more than 30 eateries and bars, a full restaurant and three live performance stages.
“It’s really about creating layered experiences — not just for a worker who is coming to grab lunch as a convenient option,” said Christine Magrann, president of The Food Hall Co. “We want people to spend the evening with us.”
To execute that round-the-clock ethos in New York, Shaver Hall will include entertainment space for performances by a yet-to-be-announced lineup of artists, said Magrann.
Shaver will feature 11 unique stalls, including an omakase concept, a wine and cheese bar, and two full restaurants. It is looking to set itself apart by offering not just a number of different cuisines but also entertainment for a more “immersive culinary experience,” said Magrann.
Magrann declined to comment on the details of Shaver Hall’s lease with Amazon, but information from CoStar indicates it’s for 15 years and that the asking rent in the building ranges from $81 to $99 per square foot.
In Union Square, the food hall by Time Out will include seven food stalls, about 300 seats with an outdoor terrace and a performance stage across roughly 10,000 square feet. In an effort of its own to shake off food halls’ work-lunch-option reputation, it will, like Shaver, host programming featuring emerging local artists and performers.
“In an era when so much happens virtually, socializing over great food, drink, culture and entertainment has never been more important,” said Virginia Rector-Birbal, the vice president of U.S. Time Out Market.
UrbanSpace originally occupied the Time Out site starting in 2022, the same year the 22-story building was completed. It shut down earlier this spring, although it’s unclear why. It’s also unclear how much Time Out is paying for the space, but asking rents in the building started at $120 per square foot when Zero Irving first opened, the New York Post reported.
With 11 locations already open globally and about five more set to open in the next two years, Time Out opened its first market in the city in Dumbo in 2019.
Spencer Levy, senior vice president of CBRE’s New York Tristate Region Retail Advisory & Transaction Services Group, says a key element to food halls’ success is that they be located within a densely populated central business district. Shaver Hall in Midtown and Time Out Market in Union Square fit the description. Amazon has about 2,000 employees in the old Lord & Taylor building, while 10 other companies call Zero Irving home.
But the Tin Building by Jean-Georges, for example, in the Seaport District has experienced a lack of crowds that visit its South Street address on the other side of the FDR Drive, Levy noted. And there are scant office properties in its immediate vicinity.
Citizens Market Hall in Manhattan West, Gotham West Market in Hell’s Kitchen, Williamsburg Food Hall and The Market Line on the Lower East Side were all outside central business districts as well.
“I think the reason why we’re seeing some of these closures is because there’s just not enough density of people to warrant that experiential type of dining,” Levy said. “To be in central business districts, those are the ones that are succeeding.”
Getting started
Levy remembers when food halls were just starting out as a new concept in the city.
It was about 15 years ago and he was working on leases for The Plaza hotel at the time when chef Todd English opened his giant food concourse in the basement of the iconic five-star property. It was so successful that it expanded to 22,000 square feet in 2012.
“I saw firsthand how they put that together, and it was pretty ingenious at the time, where they had a signature restaurant and then stalls adjacent to it,” he said. “It was hugely successful.”
The Plaza food hall’s main visitors were not tourists staying in or walking by the hotel on their way to Central Park. Rather, they were everyday commuters who worked within three to four blocks of the hotel, at 768 Fifth Ave., Levy said.
“We thought it was going to be a huge tourist thing, but it really turned out to be the locals, five days a week, that made it so successful for so many years,” he said.
Despite its popularity, The Plaza location eventually closed in early 2020, likely another one of the many casualties of the pandemic.
Even though the success of the food hall business model has been mixed in the city, Levy says, the properties offer customers a unique dining experience and not all stumble. Shaver Hall and Time Out Market Union Square will join Urban Hawker, a Singapore-inspired food hall located at 135 W. 50th St.; Moynihan Food Hall, inside the Farley Building at 421 Eighth Ave.; and The Hugh, located at 157 E. 53rd St., all in Midtown.
“It’s an opportunity for people to get multiple options in one singular location,” Levy said, “and I think that there is a great allure to having that at your fingertips.”
