After a months-long hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, construction activity has resumed at the 3rd Street Market Hall, a food hall that is being built inside The Avenue development in downtown Milwaukee.
Construction started again this week, with a new opening date slated for spring 2021, said Omar Shaikh, a partner at 3rd Street Market Hall and president and partner of Milwaukee-based SURG Restaurant Group.
The work has resumed after construction was halted this spring. Some immediate next steps include pouring concrete for the 40-person central bar, which should occur next week, along with structural steel work to the bar, which is expected to happen in the next couple of weeks.
Other work continued on the food hall even as construction wasn’t happening, Shaikh said. This included rethinking the floor plan and upgrading the ventilation systems.
He said there are now two distinct phases to the food hall. The first will consist of 12 food vendors along with bar and game areas. It will amount to about 80% of the food hall’s footprint.
The second phase, though details aren’t final, could include additional vendor spaces and some of what Shaikh called incubator units.
“A few units are going to be designed more for up-and-coming chefs to get their feet wet and have the opportunity, at least for a couple of months, to get their product out there to the public,” Shaikh said.
Some vendors had to pull out due to economic hardship that stemmed from the pandemic, he said.
“A couple vendors stepped out because they’re hurting badly,” while some don’t know if they still have the financing to move forward, he said.
Shaikh announced the news via Twitter on Tuesday evening.
The food hall will be located on the first floor of The Avenue, a mixed-use project at the former Grand Avenue mall. Other components of the development include the 52-unit Plankinton Clover apartments and 190,000 square feet of office space. Tenants include Graef-USA Inc., Milwaukee Downtown BID No. 21 and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
In a reply to Shaikh’s tweet, MMAC president Tim Sheehy said the tenant build-out work for the group’s office will be completed in October.
