Banks Food Hall in uptown Columbus has new opening date. Here’s what’s going on inside.

W.C. Bradley Co. is now hoping for an early spring 2020 opening date for Banks Food Hall, an indoor food venue on Bay Avenue.

Located between 11th and Bay Southern Table and Whitewater Express, the opening date has shifted from the original fall 2019 target.

Construction on the building itself is complete but several vendors are working to construct their spaces, according to Pace Halter, president and chief operating officer of W.C. Bradley’s Real Estate division.

“We’ve got two booths under construction right now with two more that are about to start construction hopefully in the next few weeks,” Halter told the Ledger-Enquirer. “They’re in charge of their own design and their own permitting and everything, so I can only move them as fast as they are willing to move.”

Right now the space is about 60% leased, with four booths available out of the 10 total, Halter said.

“The goal would be we would open with this first group of roughly five that are moving about the same speed,” he said.

The only vendor that has been publicly announced so far is “The Bakeshop” by Fountain City Coffee Co. Co-owners Jud Richardson, Edy Richardson, Libba Dillon and Will Dillon are working on the booth that will be a sister business to Fountain City on Broadway.

The booth will include an espresso bar and lots of pastries and baked goods, and Edy will be in charge of day-to-day operations.

“I’m super excited to have the room and kitchen and space dedicated to explore what I’d be capable of doing,” Edy told the L-E in November. “I feel like that’s kind of what Banks wants to be — an incubator space. I’m just really excited.”

Other vendors include a poke bowl stand, a bar, an ice cream shop, a Nashville hot chicken stand, and a soup, salad and sandwich concept. Some of those are fully committed while others are still in the negotiation stage, Halter said.

The Ledger first reported on the food hall in December 2018. The hall is part of the W.C. Bradley Company building and was once a warehouse where cotton was stored before it was transported down the Chattahoochee River via steamships.

Ledger-Enquirer archives were used in this report.

This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 10:44 AM.