A new food hall concept in New Albany is not only focused on creating a unique experience for the community, but an affordable opportunity for small, local businesses.
Bubbly Hall New Albany is scheduled to open this fall at 6031 Central College Rd.
With 15,000 square feet of indoor space, Bubbly Hall will house nine to 10 food and drink based vendors, along with event and corporate office meeting space. The project will also feature 10,000 square feet of outdoor space.
Bubbly Hall New Albany is the first project in the Columbus area for developer the Granaz Group, whose previous projects have been primarily in northeast Ohio.
Bubbly Hall is the first of what could be many different concepts in different areas that fall under what Granaz Group Business Strategist Ethan Shajie calls the Bubbly Lifestyle.
“The whole idea is bring joy and [a] more active and joyful lifestyle into the community,” Shajie says.
He sees what he describes as a lot of copy and paste projects in Ohio – similar developments focused on the mass production of real estate.
“Our company is looking at real estate development in [a] different way,” Shajie says. “We assess the need of each community and based on that we develop a concept.”
That concept could be residential, office or commercial. In the case of Bubbly Hall, Shajie says they decided on this style of commercial development after seeing nothing similar in the area.
While Columbus does have some food hall type concepts, Shajie says their approach is different. Not only are they designing based on the experience factor, but, “The sharing economy is something that we strongly believe in,” he says.
Bubbly Hall looks to minimize the typical costs associated with setting up and running a commercial storefront for its tenants, from build out and overhead costs, to operational costs and marketing. Shajie says instead of each vendor bearing the total cost of a service like a cleaning crew or marketing, it will be split among the vendors. Bubbly Hall is also ready to help its tenants with overall business strategy.
Shajie says they saw tremendous interest from vendors looking to score a spot at Bubbly Hall, and have narrowed the list down to a full house of nine to ten businesses which will be announced in the coming weeks.
Authenticity and uniqueness guided the selection process. Most vendors are kitchen based, with a few other grocer and goods focused offerings. Shajie says they are also looking at bringing some smaller producers in on a rotating basis.
What will make Bubbly Hall’s lineup truly unique is its variety. Shajie says they will have a concept from nearly every continent around the world, with vendors offering European, South American, Asian and African cuisine and more. Most are also one-of-a-kind concepts for Central Ohio.
Planning for Bubbly Hall started in 2018, and while the world has seen some major changes since then, the developers found that a lot of the initial design elements already worked well for the COVID environment the space will open into. Bubbly Hall will have multiple entrances and exits and an open concept with space for social distancing, as well as ample indoor-outdoor space. Shajie says the building also had a good ventilation system.
Construction is underway on Bubbly Hall with a target opening date of September or October 2021. While the opening is still months away, Shajie says they’ve already seen tremendous support from the community, whether that’s been referring vendors to the space or creating buzz and interest on social media.
For more information, visit bubblyhall.com.
All renderings provided by Bubbly Hall
