Downtown Brooklyn to Get Its Own Mega Food Hall, Maybe With a Katz's Outpost

Another day, another enormous food hall in the works, this time in Downtown Brooklyn. Today the developer of City Point, a huge housing and retail development in the works on Dekalb Avenue, announced that the building will be home to Dekalb Market Hall, a 26,000-square-foot food hall with room for anywhere between 35 and 55 food vendors.

If the name sounds familiar, that's because the entire building is being built on the site that once housed Dekalb Market, an outdoor dining and retail complex built from shipping containers. That market was pushed out by the incoming development, and never did manage to relocate. For the most part, it sounds like the vendors at the incoming Dekalb Market Hall will not be the same as those who once populated the open air market, although at least one – Cuzin's Duzin, a doughnut shop – has signed on to return. But there are plenty of big names already committed to the project, and more still considering it.

So far Fletcher's Brooklyn Barbecue has signed on, as has Elmhurst's famed Arepa Lady (who recently opened her first brick and mortar restaurant). Forcella will be serving pizza, and there will be a pierogi bar, a crepe counter, an outpost of Steve's Ice Cream, and more. Plus, perhaps most notably of all, Katz's Deli is considering opening an outpost there, clearly be a major move for the 127-year-old icon, which has yet to expand beyond East Houston Street.

The whole thing will be in the basement level of the building, and is being planned by Anna Castellani, the owner of Foragers Market, the upscale grocery store in Dumbo and Chelsea. It's slated to open in 2016, so stay tuned for developments.

And remember that upstairs, City Point will also be home to an outpost of Alamo Drafthouse, the beloved Austin-based movie theater/restaurant chain that has long promised an expansion to NYC.