Planned Spartanburg eastside food hall an incubator for small business

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A new food hall is set to break ground within the next month in Spartanburg’s Eastside neighborhood.

Though the planned food hall at 2600 East Main Street doesn’t have an official name yet, said Ryan Robertson, Freedom Commercial managing partner, the project is well underway.

The overall development is called the Viking Plaza due to the high school behind it — Spartanburg High School’s athletic teams are the Vikings, said Robertson.

The food hall will occupy about 7,000 square feet of the 13,500-square-foot shopping center, said Robertson.

What will be the new food hall was formerly Le Baron Restaurant.

To compete with all other cities in the Upstate, the city wants to boost the downtown area, and the tax revenue generated from this type of project could help assist with the overall Spartanburg beautification projects, said Robertson.

“I grew up in Spartanburg, and this food hall is a much-needed type of concept for this neighborhood,” he added. “Not everyone wants to go to downtown and deal with parking stay but want options in the neighborhood pocket, to be able to just pull into your destination and park. Families want options, and this food hall solves that issue with unique scratch kitchen ideas that will fit everyone’s palate.”

On the left end cap of the property, Colorado-based Ziggi’s Coffee will occupy that space.

What started as a small coffee shop on the corner of Main Street in downtown Longmont, Colo. in 2004, Ziggi’s has since grown to multiple drive-thru and coffeehouse locations across the U.S. — 49 to be exact, and this will be the first South Carolina location.

Remaining food hall tenants are yet to be named, said Robertson, until leases are fully executed, which is anticipated to be completed by early October.

“It’ll be a spot with really good local eateries, supporting local business owners that have a difficult time breaking into a brick-and-mortar location,” said Robertson. “There are a lot of creative people here and to have to drop $200,000 or so just to get their spot open along with staffing woes, this food hall alleviates those concerns for our tenants. It’s a way for them to get their name out there, almost like an incubator.

“This fits a great need for these types of business owners and will hopefully launch their careers. Opening this food hall helps residents have more local options in their neighborhood but also helps owners achieve their dreams without dropping an astronomical amount of money just to get open.”

Spartanburg’s Eastside is experiencing a growth spurt, said Robertson. There are approximately 2,000 to 3,000 homes planned for the area, and the high school has more than 2,000 students enrolled with a large athletics program.

“When people commute to town for these events, they will have options right here in their backyard,” said Robertson. “I think it’s a great location with a lot of parking, easily accessible, and should be highly beneficial to the people in this community.”

Robertson said when Freedom Commercial bought the property, they tried to figure out what to do with it and landed on a food hall because they are so popular right now, and it’s ready for construction.

Freedom Commercial is the real estate brokerage company overseeing the leasing and additional space that will be a part of the project. Sebastian Carter, whose company Grey Shell Group is the lead developer on the project and the architect-on-record is LMG Architects.

The project is anticipated to be completed by the end of June 2024, he said.

“We started Freedom Commercial in April, with the new food hall concept on the forefront,” said Robertson. “This is the fourth food hall I’ve worked on, and I understand the concept very well at this point and have plans to expand and do more in communities that need them.”