The San Francisco Ferry Building, which opened in 2003, is one of the first of these projects—and remains one of the most iconic. Countless others have followed its lead: In 2014, The Packing House opened in downtown Anaheim on the site of a former fruit packing and distribution center; a Sears and Roebuck was reimagined as Ponce City Market in Atlanta; and earlier this year, Chicago welcomed Revival Food Hall, a 24,000 square-foot marketplace in the heart of the central business district. Also this year, several developers began construction on food halls in cities like Denver, St. Louis, and Memphis.

But larger questions remain about whether trendy food halls can serve a wide enough audience, as they’re often seen as playing a role in neighborhood gentrification and rising property rates.

In downtown Birmingham, where more than $1 billion worth of projects have been recently completed, are under construction or being proposed, supporters hope developments like Food Hall will help, not hurt, the local community.

A Vietnamese-inspired sandwich from MO:MO. Photo courtesy of Yellowhammer Creative.

But Alice Evans, executive director of the Birmingham-based Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network isn’t convinced that Food Hall will improve local food access, noting, “[The vendors] are more upscale than they would need to be to make food accessible from a price perspective,” she says. But she does believe there is potential for the new development to positively impact local farmers.

“The cluster of different restaurants that farms could connect to at the same time could serve as a unified drop-off point. My hope would be that it lowers some of the price point hurdles and other time and capacity hurdles that sometimes keep restaurants from buying from local farms,” she says.

Kathryn Strickland, executive director of the Community Food Bank of Alabama, which serves Birmingham, is a little more optimistic.

“It takes myriad approaches and initiatives to build a local food system,” Strickland says. “Food halls are great vehicles for new food entrepreneurs to get low-cost space in high-density, high-traffic areas and promote job creation and, ultimately, impact poverty and create opportunities where there were none.”

Working Together to Improve Food Access

Earlier this year, IBM chose Birmingham as one of 16 cities around the world to receive $500,000 in technical assistance through its Smart Cities Challenge Grant to identify and develop systems aimed at eliminating food deserts.

The Urban Food Project, an initiative operated through REV Birmingham, is part of the solution. By encouraging corner stores to buy, sell ,and market fresh produce, the Urban Food Project improves healthy food access and the local farmers who make weekly fresh produce deliveries gain new markets for their fruits and vegetables.

For his part, Gordon hopes to facilitate partnerships similar to the Urban Food Project between local farmers and participants in Reveal Kitchen, the food incubator in Food Hall.

As part of the program, the REV Birmingham-operated incubator will host up-and-coming chefs and food entrepreneurs for four to six months, offering a fully equipped 350 square-foot space in Food Hall along with education and mentoring to those who might not otherwise have a shot at opening their own businesses.

“The emphasis is on market validation; we want them to use it as a springboard to their own bricks-and-mortar locations,” Gordon says.

He hopes that the entrepreneurs who are successful will go on to hire staff and establish relationships with farmers and food service companies to source ingredients, further supporting local economic development.

“Our goal is to create vibrancy in our historic commercial district and help Birmingham get its swagger back,” Gordon says.