Florida’s largest food hall to undergo ‘temporary construction closure’ for new anchor tenants
Florida’s largest food hall is closing at the end of the month, but it won’t be permanent.
The Delray Beach Market will undergo a “temporary construction closure” beginning Jan. 30, but Jordana Jarjura, president and general counsel for Menin Development, the Delray Beach-based company behind the food hall, said it should reopen sometime this summer, barring any permitting issues.
“We tried to figure out how we could stay operational” during the construction, Jarjura said, but she and business partner Craig Menin soon realized it wouldn’t be possible to do so.
The renovation is necessary, Jarjura said, to make way for two new anchor tenants on opposite ends of the food hall.
Bounce Sporting Club, whose owners announced last year that they would scrap their plans to open at Atlantic Crossing and instead move to the Delray Beach Market, will open on the north end, while Lefkes Estiatorio, a New Jersey-based Greek restaurant, will open on the south end.
Jarjura said she met with all the tenants last year to inform them of the impending closure. She said those tenants desiring to stay received at least five weeks’ notice.
As for the establishments that haven’t been invited back after the renovation, Jarjura said the tenants with whom they’ve decided to part ways “had pretty much already moved out.”
“We basically knew who we wanted to stay,” she said.
The 150,000-square-foot facility opened in April 2021 amid much fanfare, which included a special appearance by Gov. Ron DeSantis for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Jarjura said the market was always intended to be an “incubator space” for mom-and-pop businesses.
But as COVID-19 continued to impact the cost of food and the staffing shortage took its toll, the result was tighter profit margins that drove many of the mom-and-pop businesses away, Jarjura explained.
The opportunity to bring in an anchor tenant presented itself when Bounce Sporting Club sought a solution to a controversial request to extend its operating hours.
Because the not-yet-completed Atlantic Crossing development sits outside the city’s designated entertainment district, Bounce was seeking special approval to remain open after midnight, at the objection of some residents. But the move to the Delray Beach Market, which is within the entertainment district, settled that squabble.
Bringing in anchor tenants also shrinks the amount of available tenant space, which means fewer options are likely to be awaiting patrons when the market reopens.
Of course, when exactly that will be remains uncertain.
Jarjura said the hope is that the Delray Beach Market will reopen by early summer, but she “can’t control how long it’s going to take us with the permitting process.”
For that reason, there is no firm date for a grand reopening. However, Jarjura added that the owners of Bounce would like to be open for business by the summer.
Menin Development’s portfolio of properties also includes The Ray hotel, Lionfish and Johnnie Brown’s.
Source: WP TV
