Liberty Market opening delayed

The eagerly anticipated debut of San Diego’s first food hall, which had expected to open this month at Liberty Station, will now likely be delayed until some time in January.

The $3.5 million project, a collaboration of restaurateur David Spatafore and Liberty Station’s developer, the Corky McMillin Cos., already has secured a collection of diverse tenants, from cheese and seafood purveyors to a tacqueria and French pastry shop, but securing permits from the city proved more time-consuming than anticipated.

Progress on Liberty Public Market fell behind for about four weeks as the city and the developer worked through a disagreement over how to process building permits for the project. City officials at one point wanted each of the tenants to secure their own approvals, but Spatafore said an agreement was eventually reached to have the permitts processed through the developer.

Many of the tenants, Spatafore said, have no experience with developing a storefront location, let alone one being planned for a still unproven niche for San Diego. The Liberty Station market follows a model popularized by such foodie destinations at Pike Place in Seattle and the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

“Some of the spaces are only 200 square feet so it’s not reasonable for them to pull a separate building permit,” said Spatafore, whose restaurants include Stake Chophouse and Leroy’s Kitchen & Lounge in Coronado. “ The secondary part of this delay is, I really want this to be about small tenants, and that has its share of challenges. None of these people have done something like this before, and there were some unsettled nerves signing contracts with contractors and writing checks for equipment so it took time to work through all that.”

Once completed, Liberty Public Market will occupy a 22,000-square-foot indoor-outsoor space, a portion of which was used years ago as the mess hall for the former Naval Training Center.

Buildout of the market and outdoor seating areas is nearing completion, as individual tenants work on individualing their own spaces, said Spatafore, whose coompany, Blue Bridge Hospitality, is also developing a restaurant, Mess Hall, for the market.

He estimates that tenants, whose physical spaces vary in size and scope, are spending between $35,000 and $100,000 on constructing their venues.

Because Spatafore had some difficulty finding willing purveyors for some of the concepts he wanted represented in the market -- like as a bread maker -- his company will be initially filling in those gaps. Among the concepts Blue Bridge will be operating are a wine bar, a florist shop and venues that will offer a selection of San Diego breads, locally sourced produce and artisanal products made here.

The market does have a liquor license but Spatafore said he is working with the state department of Alcoholic and Beverage Control on specific conditions that will be in force once the project opens.

While Spatafore said he would have liked to have opened the market before the holidays, a January opening is more realistic. He and the tenants have agreed that if all of the spaces are not completed by January, they will still open as long as 80 percent are ready to begin operating.

“This has been harder than I thought. Just managing all the people and all the different interests, that’s what’s mind boggingly tough,” said Spatafore. “If it’s just me opening a restaurant, that’s easy because it only impacts me, but now I have to consider everyone’s needs and wants.”