Food Halls, a hot real-estate investment, conquer the suburbs

Food halls, once a staple primarily of big cities, are rapidly multiplying in the suburbs as developers aim to capitalize on the rise of hybrid work and foodie culture. These collections of small restaurants typically have shared seating and offer a variety of gourmet and ethnically diverse cuisines.

Their growth has been explosive. The U.S. has at least 364 food halls, and more than 120 are expected to open by the end of next year, according to Colicchio Consulting Group, which specializes in food-hall development. The pandemic has fueled food-hall expansion, said Trip Schneck, executive managing director at Cushman & Wakefield. As people left major cities and spent more time working from home, demand for food halls picked up in the suburbs.”The suburban market always had the nighttime population,” Schneck said. “Now they’ve got that daytime population. “This is the case in Roswell, Ga., an affluent Atlanta suburb where new office, retail and high-end restaurants have opened in recent years. The pandemic accelerated residents’ desire to spend more time closer to home, said Will Colley, managing director of Polara Capital, a private-equity and real-estate firm.