The former Hutcheson & Co. building was sold last year to EAT Restaurant Partners for $3 million. (BizSense file)
Undeterred by a legal dispute with the project’s previous contractor, EAT Restaurant Partners president Chris Tsui confirmed on Wednesday that his company is moving forward with its planned food hall in Scott’s Addition.
Tsui said the company is in the process of awarding contracts to restart construction at 3017 W. Leigh St., where work had been temporarily halted after EAT’s lawsuit against Commonwealth Construction Management, a local general contracting firm that had initially been tapped to lead the renovation of the former electrical parts warehouse into a 17,000-square-foot food hall.
While Tsui said he couldn’t comment on the particulars of the lawsuit, he said it has “no effect on the forward progress of the food hall.”
“Permits are in. Once the contract is awarded to a contractor, it’ll be full-speed ahead,” he said.
EAT owns and operates about a dozen restaurants throughout the Richmond region, including Beijing on Grove in the West End, Wong Gonzalez downtown and Red Salt Chophouse & Sushi in Short Pump.
The food hall is set to have at least six stalls and multiple bars. The stalls would be occupied by mostly new concepts from EAT, as well as one of the company’s now-closed concepts, Foo Dog.
Tsui said once construction resumes on the project, they’ll be looking to open the food hall by summer 2024.
In its lawsuit against CCM, EAT claims that the contractor performed shoddy work that it had to have corrected. CCM has denied the allegations and filed for a mechanic’s lien against EAT, claiming it’s owed over $270,000 for its work on the building. The cases are still pending in Richmond Circuit Court.
Elsewhere in the local food hall scene, Hatch Local, which opened in Manchester last year, recently welcomed in some new tenants to its 9,000-square-foot space on Hull Street.
The former Hutcheson & Co. building was sold last year to EAT Restaurant Partners for $3 million. (BizSense file)
Undeterred by a legal dispute with the project’s previous contractor, EAT Restaurant Partners president Chris Tsui confirmed on Wednesday that his company is moving forward with its planned food hall in Scott’s Addition.
Tsui said the company is in the process of awarding contracts to restart construction at 3017 W. Leigh St., where work had been temporarily halted after EAT’s lawsuit against Commonwealth Construction Management, a local general contracting firm that had initially been tapped to lead the renovation of the former electrical parts warehouse into a 17,000-square-foot food hall.
While Tsui said he couldn’t comment on the particulars of the lawsuit, he said it has “no effect on the forward progress of the food hall.”
“Permits are in. Once the contract is awarded to a contractor, it’ll be full-speed ahead,” he said.
EAT owns and operates about a dozen restaurants throughout the Richmond region, including Beijing on Grove in the West End, Wong Gonzalez downtown and Red Salt Chophouse & Sushi in Short Pump.
The food hall is set to have at least six stalls and multiple bars. The stalls would be occupied by mostly new concepts from EAT, as well as one of the company’s now-closed concepts, Foo Dog.
Tsui said once construction resumes on the project, they’ll be looking to open the food hall by summer 2024.
In its lawsuit against CCM, EAT claims that the contractor performed shoddy work that it had to have corrected. CCM has denied the allegations and filed for a mechanic’s lien against EAT, claiming it’s owed over $270,000 for its work on the building. The cases are still pending in Richmond Circuit Court.
Elsewhere in the local food hall scene, Hatch Local, which opened in Manchester last year, recently welcomed in some new tenants to its 9,000-square-foot space on Hull Street.