After three years on Market Street, The Hall, a gourmet food court, bar, and community space at 1028 Market Street, is closing its doors after tomorrow evening, Thursday, October 5th.
But weep not, for the Hall was always intended as a temporary venture, a means to make the most of the former Hollywood Billiards space before developers Tidewater Capital and War Horse could approve plans for mixed-use housing. Those plans are now firmly in place, unanimously approved by the Planning Commission, and the Hall bids a fond farewell with a party tomorrow. It’s last regular day was actually the 29th, and in fact, the Hall was open for a year longer than initially anticipated.
The development team for War Horse and Tidewater Capital created The Hall as an “an interim use activation,” in city planning jargon, of a blighted, essentially abandoned space (Hollywood Billiards had been closed for years). It was also one in a host of food hall projects like The Market, though its aspirations were always limited by the coming development. Scott Peterson and Ted Wilson were initially in charge of the project, with consulting from Matt Semmelhack of AQ (before it succumbed to a rash of closures in the mid-Market area). Other such projects, like The Bazaar in the former Big Apple Grocery Space on Polk Street, are in the works.
In its time, the Hall played host to vendors like Fine & Rare, which eventually found its own space, and the popular meat purveyor The Whole Beast. Current vendors, though, will have to move on. According to Ilana Lipsett, the Hall’s community manager, El Pipila will be moving to a new location, with pop-ups and catering in the meantime, and Farming Hope can be found in the future at the Civic Center Farmers Market and at pop-up dinners.
Next up for 1028 Market Street: 193 units of housing. It’s a good reminder that everything is temporary. But with 6,000 square feet of ground floor retail, there could also be something like the Hall in the future.
“The success of the Hall and our experience with it will definitely inform the ground floor of the final building,” Lipsett tells Eater, “Just as community input will.”
- The Hall, A Massive Mid-Market Gathering Place [ESF]
- The Hall [Official]