What Does It Take To Bring A Food Hall To Brooklyn?

From farmers markets to dine-in theaters, Brooklyn has become a hotspot for eateries that appeal to its hip, cool tenant base. Perhaps the most interesting of these new options is the food hall, such as BERG’N and City Point’s Dekalb Market Hall, which combine the variety and accessibility creatives crave.

Now, Fort Greene's getting its first food hall at Gotham’s newest luxury rental building, The Ashland. The 16k SF ground-floor market, called Gotham Market at The Ashland, will have eight dining and drinking venues, including a pop-up space that will rotate a selection of local chefs and restaurateurs. 

The idea isn’t new for Gotham, which established Gotham West Market on 11th Avenue, which has been named one of the best food halls by Food & Wine and other publications. But will the Brooklyn location have the same revitalizing effect? What is Gotham doing to guarantee its success? Is a food hall the key to a strong development?

A stone’s throw from the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Barclays Center, Gotham’s 586-unit tower already has a long list of amenities, including bike storage, a gym (pictured) with a yoga studio, a children’s playroom and barbecue areas. Through Gotham's GothamCard program, residents will receive discounts and home delivery privileges at the market. 

This above-and-beyond approach, Gotham president David Picket says, makes him confident The Ashland will have no problem leasing up even as the leasing market slows, rents continue to rise and there are fears of a glut in the Brooklyn rental market.

David says Gotham is well-aware that Brooklyn’s no longer a value-play proposition to Manhattan, but a live/work/play proposition. 

“People are moving or staying in Brooklyn because they want to, not because they have to,” he tells Bisnow. The amenities, food hall and even Gotham-arranged programming, he says, convince renters they’re getting their money’s worth. 

Meshing with the Brooklyn feel was extremely important for Gotham, David says. Part of Gotham West Market’s success came from the fact that the surrounding area had few food options. Filling a vital need, the market became an “indispensable renting and retention tool.”

“It’s really our best amenity in a building full of amenities,” David says. 

But Gotham Market at The Ashland  straddles three neighborhoods—Fort Greene, DoBro and the Arts District—each with its own hip eateries and different atmospheres.

So, while Gotham was comfortable with developing a food hall and luxury rental building, it was by no means a guarantee, David says. What convinced them the location could work, Gotham Properties & Hospitality president Christopher Jaskiewicz (pictured) says, was that Barclays and BAM attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, and Brooklyn still needed more eateries to keep up with demand.

To truly mesh with the area, The Ashland’s design includes mauve color brick found in Brooklyn brownstones, as well as limestone bricks to imitate the borough’s cultural buildings. The variety of amenities and affordable food options also meshes with both Brooklyn and the building’s diverse tenant base.

But, David and Chris warn, a food hall shouldn’t be the go-to amenity for every building. Despite being the only firm in the city to develop two markets, Chris says not each future Gotham building will necessarily have a market at the bottom, because the decision is largely based on what food and beverage options already exist in the neighborhood.  

"We know how to develop, build and operate food halls, but the decision has to make sense for our residents and the neighborhood,” he tells Bisnow.