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There’s new life for Midtown’s zombie food halls.
Restaurateur Stephen Hanson and hospitality expert Alex Gaudelet are teaming up to revive five key Midtown locations previously managed by UrbanSpace. UrbanSpace struggled to keep up with rent payments following the devastation caused by the pandemic, leading to the change in management.
Under their new venture HF Food Halls, Hanson and Gaudelet recently secured a lease for Vanderbilt Hall, a spacious 11,000 square-foot establishment situated at RXR Realty’s 230 Park Ave. They are also finalizing a lease for a location at the Feil Organization’s 570 Lexington Ave. and are currently in talks to take over troubled food halls at 787 Seventh Ave., One Irvine at Union Square, and Urban Hawker at 135 W. 55th St.
“We are acquiring each of the halls individually and rebranding them,” Gaudelet told Realty Check.
Hanson and Gaudelet plan to operate their Manhattan establishments with a unique business approach compared to traditional food halls. Instead of the typical model where operators lease out floors to individual vendors who may lack the necessary expertise to run their businesses effectively, HF Food Halls will implement a different strategy.
Instead, HF will run most of the food stands itself, tapping into Hanson’s experience as founder of the former B.R. Guest eatery empire, which included such names as Ruby Foo’s, Atlantic Grill and Dos Caminos.
That company had a reported $200 million annual revenue before Hanson sold it in 2007.
At Vanderbilt, they ousted three under-performing stands — reducing the number of vendors from 20 to 17 — and replaced them with three brands Hanson and Gaudelet own: chicken spot ICC, Bash Burger and Brett’s Deli
They’ve proven so popular that they boosted the entire hall’s business by 60%, Hanson said.
A vegan burger place that did only $400 a day gave way to Brett’s Deli, which brings in between $6,000 and $8,000 a day.
“Alex and I had 40 restaurants between us and we’re bringing that quality experience to fast serve” Hanson said.
Hanson boasted that the quality of his Vanderbilt stands is superior due to his company’s expertise in all aspects of the business.
“At ICC, everything is made to order. They don’t fry it at 9 a.m. and serve it at noon,” Hanson said.
He also raved about the cupcakes at the new coffee and bakery stand called Moka Matcha, reminding us that Realty Check found it better than Magnolia Bakery’s.
“We spent almost nine months to get it that way,” he said.
Not all existing vendors will be ousted.
“Some do a great job, like Pita Yeero,” Hanson said. “They’re in all the halls and we’re happy to keep them.”
The pair’s reemergence comes at a critical time for the city’s food hall business. Market Line at Essex Crossing recently closed and crowds have been thin at many others.
Even the best outlets are plagued by inconsistent dishes, unpredictable opening hours and customers’ long waits for what’s supposed to be “fast” food.
HF closed an UrbanSpace at 100 Pearl St. downtown and a half-dozen UrbanSpace locations in Washington, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston.
Although Hanson and Gaudelet were reported to have “taken over” the venues last summer, they were only working with UrbanSpace to help restructure the company and manage the venues better.
Now, UrbanSpace is completely out of the picture.
Hanson noted that the partners have prior relationships with all the new landlords. Feil, for example, was a minority partner in Hanson’s Strip House.
He wouldn’t discuss terms of their Vanderbilt deal, except to say that the lease would “ramp up over time.”
Brokers said that before the pandemic, a food hall might pay between $100 and $300 per square foot depending on size and neighborhood density.
“But today is another world,” one said.
