MARSELLA DEVELOPMENT CORP. received approval on April 20 for plans to redevelop the lower level of Union Station into 30,000-square-foot food hall, restaurant and outdoor dining plaza. / RENDERING COURTESY OF MARSELLA DEVELOPMENT CORP.
When Providence’s Capital Center Commission approved design plans for what a Providence developer called “Rhode Island’s first food hall” at the Union Station building, it raised two questions: what’s a food hall and would this really be the state’s first? After all, Plant City Providence LLC on South Water Street bills itself as Rhode Island’s…
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Rather a trite and silly article spending time debating the definition of a food hall rather than focusing on why Rhode Island does not have one. In fact, wasn’t it the Carpionato group that planned to build a food hall in the area where they demolished the old fruit and produce market just west of Providence Place. So why didn’t Larocque investigate the reasons behind the no action on that development. A food hall would seem to require diversity and scale to be successful which makes the Marsella planned $23.5 million investment an attention grabber. Plant City is a nice operation, but it is nothing more than a glorified restaurant, subdivided and they certainly didn’t spend millions getting it into operation. In fact Venda on Federal Hill has a better claim as food hall than Plant City since it offers a variety of food products, prepared foods, ceramics besides serving as a restaurant. In fact, expand Venda tenfold and you have Eataly in NYC and Boston. If Providence wants to be a culinary destination, it has to offer a food hall on the scale and diversity of Pike’s Place in Seattle.
Want to share this story? Click Here to purchase a link that allows anyone to read it on any device whether or not they are a subscriber.
Rather a trite and silly article spending time debating the definition of a food hall rather than focusing on why Rhode Island does not have one. In fact, wasn’t it the Carpionato group that planned to build a food hall in the area where they demolished the old fruit and produce market just west of Providence Place. So why didn’t Larocque investigate the reasons behind the no action on that development. A food hall would seem to require diversity and scale to be successful which makes the Marsella planned $23.5 million investment an attention grabber. Plant City is a nice operation, but it is nothing more than a glorified restaurant, subdivided and they certainly didn’t spend millions getting it into operation. In fact Venda on Federal Hill has a better claim as food hall than Plant City since it offers a variety of food products, prepared foods, ceramics besides serving as a restaurant. In fact, expand Venda tenfold and you have Eataly in NYC and Boston. If Providence wants to be a culinary destination, it has to offer a food hall on the scale and diversity of Pike’s Place in Seattle.
This would be a great idea if Providence was bustling as it was in the ’70s and ’80s, but I fear it is too little, too late.