Outdoor food market on the way for ArtsWalk
Bell Hall, The Dime, The Hamilton Kitchen & Bar, Johnny’s Bagels & Deli and Queen City BBQ are just a handful of the restaurants that have contributed to downtown Allentown’s tasty turnaround over the past five years.
Now, the burgeoning metropolis is set to become even more of a foodie paradise thanks to a forthcoming market filled with various food merchants.
City Center Investment Corp., the real estate development company revitalizing downtown Allentown, announced on Friday it has hired two firms that helped launch The Bourse food hall in Philadelphia to create The Downtown Allentown Market.
City Center is seeking merchants for the market, which will open on the ArtsWalk in late summer or early fall, according to the news release.
City Center has partnered with Groundswell Design Group, a design firm specializing in placemaking, public space activation and hospitality projects, and Cana Development, a commercial real estate development and brokerage firm that delivers mixed-use urban redevelopment projects with a focus on retail, hospitality and entertainment.
The Downtown Allentown Market will be on the ArtsWalk in a 12,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by clothing stores Sage and Aquarius, next to Queen City BBQ.
It will feature nine bays for local and regional food merchants offering high-quality, fast-casual food and drink, such as sushi, baked goods and coffee, soups and salads, sandwiches, ethnic food, a noodle bar and craft beer or wine.
The Downtown Allentown Market will provide ample indoor seating and flexible space for events, programming and pop-up shops. Regional muralists will bring unique local flavor to the walls, and large-scale windows will connect seamlessly to outdoor seating along the ArtsWalk.
“City Center regularly surveys its residential and office tenants about what they’d like to experience in downtown Allentown, and an authentic, local food hall always tops their wish list,” said Natalia Stezenko, City Center’s retail leasing and activation manager. “We listened and hired the experts at Groundswell and Cana Development to help us bring this exciting project to life. We’re making it really easy for merchants to join us in this unique venture with beautiful, fully equipped, turnkey bays for cuisine and beverages of all types.”
Bays will range in size from 287 to 575 square feet to accommodate different food concepts, and the bays will be delivered to merchants in a way that allows for easy activation, according to the release.
Also, rent will be a percentage of a merchant’s gross sales and includes use of City Center’s liquor license for qualified merchants who wish to serve alcohol. Merchants can learn more and apply at DowntownAllentownMarket.com or follow the project on Facebook or Instagram at @DowntownAllentownMarket.
Groundswell Design Group, headquartered in Philadelphia and Detroit, has a robust portfolio of projects from large public parks, land art installations, restaurants and distilleries, to intimate cafés and pop-up activations – all rooted in a communityfirst approach. The team focuses on weaving a sense of place within each design concept, drawing inspiration from the site, neighborhood and community. Among its most recognized projects are The Bourse food hall and Spruce Street Harbor Park in Philadelphia, Sparkman Wharf in Tampa, Florida, and Hangar 1 Vodka in Alameda, California.
“Our team shares a passion to design, develop and build projects that forge positive change in a community,” Groundswell principal David Fierabend said. “From a bustling winter market in Detroit to a vodka distillery overlooking the San Francisco Bay, our group’s mission is to drive place-making forward. We’re exciting to partner with City Center in the creation of a public market on the beautiful ArtsWalk and hope it will become a jewel of the city.”
Cana Development has developed more than 2 million square feet of commercial space throughout the United States with a relentless approach to quality project development and food and retail management.
Its team is well-versed in all aspects of food hall, marketplace, retail and entertainment-district development and has proven successful with large-scale, highprofile mixed-use projects, including The Bourse food hall in Philadelphia, Cross Street Market and Mount Vernon Marketplace in Baltimore and District Detroit, a mix of sports and entertainment venues and home to the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers.
ryan.kneller@mcall.com Twitter @lvrestaurant 610-820-6597