ORLANDO, Fla. -- If you believe Forbes Magazine, food halls are the new food trucks and they're popping up everywhere, including in Central Florida.
- New food hall coming to Orlando's Lake Ivanhoe
- The food hall will feature 10 food vendors, event space
- It will be modeled after Tampa location Hall on Franklin
The latest food hall, modeled after their Tampa location, is hoping to hit a sweet spot in Orlando.
Franklin Street Hall, located off Lake Ivanhoe, will feature 10 food vendors, a beer garden, a lawn for yoga and a 200-seat event space. It's a concept The Hall on Franklin's developer and founder, Jamal Wilson, hopes will resonate on the other side of I-4.
"You'll have a menu in front of you and can order one item from one chef, or a million things that's there," he said.
ONE MENU, MANY OPTIONS
Wilson said that he's always loved food, but like many people also loves options.
"I'm the guy that goes to a restaurant and orders five different plates because I want to try everything," he said. "I ended up selling one of my companies and wanted to do something exciting and figured food would be really cool."
Wilson opened the Tampa spot -- which boasts one menu with seven different restaurants -- in 2017.
"You have the diversity of a food hall and open kitchens. You can walk up to a chef and talk to them," he said. "But you can sit down and have full service."
It's a concept that worked so well in Tampa, Wilson thought of branching out.
Orlando already has several food halls, from Market on Magnolia to East End Market in Audubon Park. Plant Street Market in Winter Garden features 20 vendors with natural, organic and handmade products. Several more food halls are planned in coming months.
But what is rising from the dust left by a former glass factory parallel to the railroad tracks is a little different: Nearly 600 apartments, with a skyline vista, overlooking the future Franklin Street Hall.
At 13,000 square feet, it's much bigger than Wilson's 8,000 square feet food hall in Tampa.
"He's the anchor tenant in our front yard. He's taking up the most square footage," said Rob Henry, a project manager for Real Estate Inverlad (REID).
Henry's company is overseeing construction of The Yard at Ivanhoe, which refers to the entire development taking up space on the corner of North Orange Avenue and Virginia Drive in Orlando.
It's a site that was once filled with old warehouses. When REID bought the site in 2014, they launched into years of planning, seeking approvals with the city of Orlando---as well as the neighborhood's blessing.
They also commissioned artists who once worked there to fashion pieces for their development--and decided to keep two, towering silos in the center of the property.
"They would load up these with the glass beads until they were ready for them. They would bring them in and melt them down," Henry said, gesturing to the blueish gray silos.
"This is our baby right now where everything's focused on this, getting it done and completed," he said. "It's been a process and we're finally glad to see it come out of the ground."
Just like its Tampa sister spot, Wilson's new food hall will revolve around one menu, which allows diners to take a seat and order from any vendor.
"It gives a lot more food options for people in the neighborhood and our tenants and I think it fits the area," Henry said. "Has that chic, industrial vibe we're going for with The Yard."
While tenants will move into the apartments this fall, Wilson hopes to open his new Orlando food hall in January or February of 2020.
If he finds success once again, the developer said that he'll eye other cities, like St. Petersburg, Miami and Atlanta, for future food halls as well.
"We just think we have a concept that has legs and people have been so supportive here, we want to bring it to other communities," Wilson said.