By Jacob Barker

Copyright stltoday

Jacob Barker | Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS — After investing tens of millions of dollars into Washington Avenue apartment buildings and retail space over the last couple years, developer Alex Oliver hopes a new food hall will reinvigorate the allure of downtown living and draw more foot traffic to one of the city’s marquee thoroughfares.

The Washington Avenue Food Hall is slated to open at 1122 Washington Avenue in the second quarter of next year with spaces for eight different food stalls, plus two bars — one inside and one in the back of the building where a retractable roof will allow open-air dining in the warmer months. Oliver called the food hall the “next step” in his strategy of reinvesting in the historic loft buildings on Washington.

“We’ve been very excited about the incredible results we’ve seen when we focus on building this up as a neighborhood,” Oliver said during an event celebrating the start of construction Tuesday.

The project comes after several years of post-pandemic struggles for downtown, with restaurants closing amid a decline in foot traffic lost to remote work and business exits driven in part by high-profile criminal incidents and a perception of lawlessness.

The food hall will fill one of the most infamous such spots: the former Reign nightclub space, where a number of shootings and raucous crowds led to a rare 2021 move by City Hall to use nuisance laws to shut it down.

Brad Dean, president and CEO of the St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission, said the food hall will be a welcome addition for the guests who come for conferences and events at the America’s Center convention complex across the street. He added that St. Louis’ food scene has become one of the city’s top attractions for visitors.

“Our visitors will tell us we are a food town,” Dean said. “This is not only going to serve residents, it’s going to serve visitors.”

Oliver said he is partnering with FIRETEN Hospitality, a South Florida-based food hall operator that runs similar venues in other cities, including Denver, Houston and Reno, Nevada. FIRETEN CEO Jeremy Barker said the St. Louis location will sign up local chefs and restaurants for its stalls.

It will be one of FIRETEN’s smaller food halls, Barker said, but the company plans to focus on events, such as cooking classes, family events and popups to continuously draw customers. He even is considering occasional closings of St. Charles Street in the back of the building for a weekend farmer’s market concept.

“The food hall will be a huge additive and really a cornerstone for the area,” Barker said.

Oliver said the food hall will complement nearby Washington Avenue mainstays like Flamingo Bowl, and he noted a new restaurant, The Moniker, just opened up in one of his buildings a block away. Oliver said occupancy at his Six Cord apartments at 1000 Washington and Vangard Lofts at 1110 Washington Avenue – about 200 units combined – has grown to more than 90% in the last two years.

In April, Oliver purchased the 125-unit Bogen Lofts building on the northwest corner of Tucker Boulevard and Washington Avenue, with a $6 million rehab plan to freshen the building up and boost occupancy above its current 80%. He said there is a renewed interest and focus on a downtown “that had been put on the backburner.”

“We are a piece of this,” Oliver said, “But there’s a ton of other investment and development happening.”

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