Construction is expected to start before the end of the year on the newest food hall to enter the Orlando dining scene.

Orlando developer James Ekbatani is converting the former University Club space at 150 E. Central Blvd. in downtown’s Mondrian tower into the Eola Food Hall, which will showcase some of the region’s top culinary offerings.

“The Eola Food Hall will transform this corner into a vibrant place where surrounding residents and the business community can gather and collaborate,” he said. “By promoting local businesses and regional products, the project will foster inclusivity and enable consumers to celebrate the distinctive qualities of the downtown Orlando neighborhood.”

It is the third new food hall being envisioned in the downtown area.

Ekbatani has joined forces with Lincoln Property Company to handle the buildout and leasing for the project. The first two floors of the four-story building on the southwest corner of E. Central and N. Rosalind Avenue, are being repositioned as a two-story, 15,000-square-foot food hall. Diners will have panoramic views through floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Eola and new outdoor cafe seating on Rosalind Avenue across from the planned expansion of Lake Eola Park.

Shayna Hansen, Director at Lincoln, said the goal is to open by late 2025.

“Leasing has already started,” Hansen said. “There will be approximately 10 vendors comprised of carefully curated diverse local chefs and entrepreneurs, who can engage with their guests and benefit from local foot traffic.”

Hansen said they’re working to ensure there’s no duplication of vendors from other food halls or competing spaces. “It won’t be a cut and paste of anything that currently exists in the market,” she said. “It’ll all be new vendors and artisans for this specific project.”

The space will also include a full-service restaurant, with its own unique menu, and a wine room and speakeasy on the second floor. Hansen said the speakeasy is being built in a room that previously served as a locker room for members of the private athletic club. “We have some plans and some ideas and some renderings that will utilize those lockers as private wine lockers,” Hansen said. “It really lends itself to a cool vibe. It’s just right there in the corner, and the way it’s currently laid out, it could make a really neat-looking space.”

Hansen said the restaurant space is 1,391 square feet on the first floor.

The high-profile corner was the longtime home of the University Club for 90 years when it was sold to Mill Creek Residential Trust to build the Modera Central tower. The developers incorporated the four-story club structure into the 22-story tower’s podium, opening it in 2018. The 350-unit apartment tower sold in late 2021 for $100 million and was rebranded the Mondrian, but the 35,000-square-foot University Club was excluded from the sale.

The members-only club permanently closed in 2023. Shortly after, the third floor was renovated and reopened as Eola View, an event venue.

Lincoln Property Company is also connected to the planned Bumby Food Hall. The 20,000-square-foot project involves the adaptive reuse of the historic Orchid Garden and Bumby Hardware buildings next to the former Church Street Ballroom, which LPC demolished to build a 32-story mixed-use skyscraper called The Edge.

A Miami developer, Shoma Group, also proposed building a food hall called “Shoma Bazaar” in downtown Orlando’s entral business district a year ago as part of a 16-story mixed-use building at 550 Mariposa St.

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