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Sweden-based Ingka Centres, which operates 34 Ikea-anchored shopping malls worldwide, added to its San Francisco Meeting Place in the mid-market district with the global debut of its new “plant-forward” food hall, Saluhall.
The two-level, 23K SF food hall is operated in conjunction with food and beverage specialist Kerb and features 11 food outlets, of which five are local independent traders. Saluhall also includes a cooking school developed with Danish chef and entrepreneur Claus Meyer, a Scandinavian bakery and two bars.
Meeting Place in San Francisco is the first location in the U.S. for Ingka’s mixed-use concept, anchored by an Ikea store plus a Hej!Workshop with Industrious coworking space. Ingka Centres Managing Director Cindy Andersen said the real estate developer is looking for more locations around North America.
“We really believe in this type of mixed-use concept and we are looking to identify further locations in the U.S. for this kind of scheme, including an Ikea store, coworking and a food hall,” she said.
“While we want to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach, and each site will be evaluated on its own basis, our focus currently is on urban sites in the U.S. and Europe where the most people are and where we can bring this sort of offer, adapted to the location.”
Ingka Centres acquired 945 Market St. in September 2020. The Ikea was the first thing to open, in August 2023, followed by Hej! earlier this year. The whole Meeting Place encompasses about 256K SF.
Despite the challenges faced by the commercial real estate and retail sectors in recent months in San Francisco, Andersen said Ingka remained committed to the Bay Area and that the company hoped its full opening would help act as a catalyst for the regeneration of San Francisco’s downtown.
“We’re very excited to see the number of AI companies which are taking up residence in San Francisco and, despite the problems faced in the city, we really believe in this location,” she said. “Our philosophy is that Saluhall will provide people with more reasons to visit the site more regularly and we feel that this type of Meeting Place concept really is a future model for community-focused destinations.”
Andersen added that Ingka would spend the coming months evaluating the performance of Saluhall, which is predominantly vegan and plant-based, before rolling the concept out to other locations.
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