Crossroads Collective Food Hall

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The developers of the Crossroads Collective Food Hall project in Milwaukee set out to occupy a space that had seen a string of businesses come and go over the years.

The site had once been home to the Oriental Drugstore, which had been a bustling gathering place before it was closed in the mid-1990s. For about 20 years, various businesses had occupied the space. Then, in 2017, New Land Development bought the site and proposed a use that had worked in other cities: a food hall.

The plan called for bringing various locally owned food vendors, along with a bar and speakeasy, together into a single building. Each vendor would be owned by local chefs, who in turn would obtain many of their ingredients locally.

New Land worked with Korb + Associates Architects to design the food hall, and Pinnacle Real Estate served as the construction manager. The development team also commissioned local artists to paint murals inside and outside the building. That work built on efforts to involve local vendors, artisans, contractors and others in every part of the project.