Erie downtown group launches food hall talent search
Jim Martin @etnmartin
EDDC's Matt Wachter: "If they are successful, we are successful. In many ways, it's a true partnership."
No disrespect to the foldable slices of Sbarro pizza or the gooey goodness of Cinnabon, but those national brands won't be welcome in the new Flagship City Food Hall.
Instead, the Erie Downtown Development Corp. is looking to recruit some hometown talent.
And the search starts Friday as the EDDC begins to solicit applications from what it hopes will be a diverse group of local cooks and food truck and restaurant owners.
Applicants — and the EDDC is betting there will be a lot of them — will compete for space along North Park Row, inside an 8,000-square-foot area that once included Sherlock's and Park Place tavern.
The EDDC has scheduled a 10 a.m. news conference for Friday to make public the details of its plan, which it shared with the Erie Time-News earlier this week.
Applications, which will be accepted through March 2, will be evaluated by the EDDC and Erie-based Red Letter Hospitality. More information is available at https://flagshipcityfoodhall.com.
Red Letter Hospitality, which owns Molly Brannigan's, Skunk & Goat Tavern and The Cork 1794, has signed a contract to serve both as a consultant in the development of the food hall and to provide day-to-day management of the facility when it opens.
Up for grabs are nine spaces, which will range from 150 square feet to 450 square feet.
Instead of paying monthly rent, tenants will pay an amount based on a percentage of their gross sales, said John Persinger, CEO of the EDDC. He describes the rents as some of the lowest available in the Erie region.
Depending on the space, rents will range from 18 percent to 23 percent of gross sales, instead of what the EDDC says is an industry average of about 30 percent. Those sales will be tallied by a common point-of-sale computer system.
For the EDDC, a business-led initiative that plans to invest up to $100 million in downtown Erie over the next five years, the rent structure is a way of sharing risk with its tenants.
"We want this to be a community asset," Persinger said. "We want people to come here. A flat royalty, we feel, will alleviate them of having to worry about other things."
With walking distance for workers at Erie Insurance, UPMC Hamot, Gannon University, the Erie County Courthouse, Erie City Hall and other downtown institutions, the EDDC is betting that the food hall, which will have seating for 192, will be especially busy at lunch.
The EDDC is consulting with Cleveland-based Richardson Design, which has done extensive work in food halls and NFL stadiums to design food-service areas where high-quality food can be made and served quickly.
The quick-serve, low-investment nature of the food hall has the EDDC thinking that the right food truck owner might find a home there.
"There are many people in the food and beverage industry who are very talented but they don't necessarily have the capital to open a restaurant," said Matt Wachter, vice president of finance and development for the EDDC. "If they are successful, we are successful. In many ways, it's a true partnership."
The job of vetting those potential partners will begin immediately. The EDDC hopes to sign contracts with selected vendors this coming summer and build out their spaces as part of a $10 million portion of its larger North Park Row project. Plans call for opening the food hall in the first three months of next year.
In addition to the nine individual stalls, the 8,000-square-foot space will include a bar managed by Red Letter Hospitality and seating that can be used by patrons or reconfigured for special events.
Red Letter is expected to help find the right mix of vendors to provide offerings suitable for different times of the day and to showcase different aspects of Erie.
The EDDC has been criticized for not renewing the leases of a pair of ethnic restaurants located elsewhere in its North Park Row properties, which it purchased for $2.95 million in September 2018.
The organization has said repeatedly that it would be impossible to make the needed renovations without first clearing the space.
Now, as the EDDC makes plans for the food hall, Nicole Reitzell, vice president of community engagement for the EDDC, said one of the goals is for the food hall to be a "showcase of Erie's diverse culinary talents. We want it to feel like it's a communal gathering place. If you are a Gannon student, you can come and study. If you are a businessperson, you can come for a meeting."
And the food should be affordable, she said.
Under discussion is an idea the EDDC saw in some other food halls, where on any given day, on a rotating basis, at least one of the vendors offers a nutritious plate of food for $5, Reitzell said.
The $10 million project hinges on several things, including the financing of a larger project that includes apartments, a fresh food market and possibly an atrium building along North Park Row.
After meeting with 120 business owners over the past couple of years, Persinger said he's not at all concerned about finding prospective tenants.
"The response has been overwhelming," he said.
Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ETNMartin.