South Park Food Hall to Open in Historic Wayne Ave Site

According to information on social media, a new food hall is coming to the Wayne Avenue corridor in historic South Park.

The South Park Food Hall will be located at 735 Wayne Ave and is planning to open in Summer 2021.

Businesses will include the Good Hands Bread Co, an artisan bakery specializing in fresh grains and naturally leavened breads.

According to LinkedIn, another business at the food hall will be CheezCake Lab LLC.

The new food hall will bring new activity to an underutilized space close to residents in South Park, the Oregon District, and downtown.

The concept should nicely complement the coffee shops, brewery, and sit-down restaurants that are already nearby on Wayne Ave.

The single-story structure was built in 1925 according the the Montgomery County Auditor website.

Before the present building was constructed, the location was the site of the Wayne Street Brewery.

In the 1930s, the Haggerty-Van Lue Motor Company occupied the structure. The longest-running business at 735 Wayne was the Blommel Sign Co, which stayed in operation from the 1960s into the 2000s.

In 2007 the building was purchased by the owners of Coco’s Bistro who envisioned it as a possible event space. It has changed hands two times after that, most recently being sold by Sandy’s Auto and Truck for $124,000 in September 2018.

This section of Wayne Ave saw significant change with the construction of highway 35 in the 1960s and business suffered as a result.

In recent years, however, new investment has come to the area and there has been a push to make the corridor more pedestrian friendly. The opening of the food hall should continue the positive momentum.