ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Downtown Albuquerque is about to get more lunch options along Route 66. Developers are making plans to open a food hall with eight restaurants at the corner of Fifth and Central.
The 13,000 square-foot space will include seven food vendors and one bar. So far, developers have verbal commitments from a pizza place and burger place, and they are in talks with a vegan eatery, Asian restaurant and bakery.
Developer Mark Baker says they came up with the idea after seeing success at Humble Coffee which opened two years ago, and will be part of the market as well. The food hall, named 505 Central Market, will focus on locally made, high-quality foods.
“It’s really going to be organized around quick-service food, so it’s going to work really well for lunches, group lunches, people who work downtown; they can go out with their colleagues,” Baker said.
They are also focused on dinners at the market, the hours being 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. There are more than 50 apartments on the top floors of the building, and while they expect those people to be customers, they ope for the spot to become a destination for people all across the city.
Baker says the market used to be an old Sears building built back in the 1930s.
“It’s a really wonderful feeling to bring this building back to life, which has been underutilized for many years–but as part of this downtown resurgence we are seeing, 505 Central is coming back to life,” Baker said.
They plan to open six months from now. This comes as another food hall, Sawmill Market, is set to open in Albuquerque just north of Old Town next year.
