CW Retail - Food Halls Report

FOOD HALLS OF AMERICA

rents probably in the $60 per-square-foot range for about 2,000 square feet. That would have been $120,000 per year and it would have been for space that generates nowhere near the traffic of this place. I would not have been able to afford that, but here I am thriving.” Food Halls: A Quick Primer According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the term “food hall” is British in origin and it is defined as “a large section of a department store where food is sold.” Clearly this definition is not complete or all-inclusive. The OED is a British institution and so might be slightly skewed towards things British. But one could argue that the food hall is also a British invention, as Harrods department store in London is generally credited with opening the world’s first food hall, at least as we know it. That is perhaps not surprising as Charles Harrod– the store’s founder—got his start in retail as a grocer and tea merchant. Food has always been part of the mix at Harrods. Harrods Food Hall (its official title) has undergone multiple incarnations since the store’s original formation in 1849.

The food hall concept may have begun in Great Britain, but it also took hold on the European continent where it has long been a mainstay, and was embraced in Asia before this current trend evolved in the U.S. London was the food hall capital of the world for decades, but in recent years it has been increasingly challenged by Singapore, Seoul and Tokyo. New York City, of course, was also on that list of challengers—until this year. With a total of eight new projects slated for completion through the end of 2016 and more in the development pipeline, no other metropolis comes close. New York City is now the indisputable food hall capital of the world. The commercial real estate industry has yet to settle on a clear definition of what the food hall of today actually is, and any definition we provide here is likely to continue evolving. For this real estate- focused report, we did not include open-air markets in our survey. Nor did we include seasonal food halls or many projects that struck us as simply updated takes on the What is the Real Estate Definition of a Food Hall?

Restaurant Growth

10,000 11,000 12,000 13,000 14,000 15,000

5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000

Number of Restaurants

Stated Restaurant Chain Growth Plans 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Stated Growth Plans

Source: Cushman & Wakefield Research

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD

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