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The business partners behind St. Roch Market, plan to open a new food hall in the Warehouse district in New Orleans by December, with 10 independent food purveyors and space for special events.

The Auction House Market, at 801 Magazine St., at the corner of Julia Street, will be operated by Will Donaldson, who with partner Barre Tanguis, opened St. Roch Market in 2014. The building is being re-developed by Felicity Property Co., a New Orleans real estate firm, and will feature apartments as well.

Felicity Property Co. has built multi-family and commercial projects in the city, including The Saint Anna and The Julian apartments. Tom Winingder is chairman and Patrick Schindler is president of the company.

“New Orleans has a strategic advantage with all of its art and culture and we wanted to be in the warehouse district and the arts district,” Schindler said. “There is a lot going on in that area with new projects, condominium developments, apartment and the expansion of the World War II Museum.”

The upper floor of the building will feature eight apartments. Along with the market, which take over 8,846-square-feet facing Magazine Street, the lower floor has an additional approximately 3,200 square feet of retail space that fronts on Julia Street. No tenants have been announced for the Julia Street side of the space at this time, Schindler said.

The food hall’s name pays homage to the building’s previous tenant, New Orleans Auction Galleries, which moved to nearby St. Joseph Street. Felicity purchased the 24,000-square-foot building about 10 months ago, Schindler said.

The structure, which was built around 1895 to house Tinker Copper and Iron Works, will have a “coordinated aesthetic” that fits in well with the nearby art galleries on Julia Street, a design that the partners are working with Felicity Property to develop, Donaldson said.

Also, he said, the market’s look has been influenced by the National WWII Museum, which is in the 900 block of Magazine.

Construction should start in early May, he said.

Auction House Market will feature a bar and an oyster bar as well as eight other businesses, Donaldson said.

“We’ve had advanced conversations with a lot of people, but I can’t say how many spaces we have left just yet,” Donaldson said. “When we can talk about the names, I think we’ll have ones that you’ll recognize, but we’ll also have room for newcomers.

“The same sort of attention to beverages that we have in the (St. Roch) Market, we will have here,” he said. “We want the chance to collaborate with people who are doing interesting things around town.”

Auction House Market, which recently launched its website,  AuctionHouseMarket.com, aims to provide the infrastructure and support for new and fledgling food and beverage companies that might not be ready to open a stand-alone business, he said.

Although he declined to discuss specific tenants, Donaldson said the space will include coffee, pastry and a “really great salad options” as well. He hopes the balance of four or five stalls will dish out a variety of cuisines, from sushi to Italian to Indian.

Along with a food hall, the market will feature an approximately 1,600-square-foot event space, large enough to accommodate 120 seated patrons. Market vendors may use the space for pop-ups to experiment with various cuisines. Also, outside groups could rent the space.

“We are the exclusive caterers for our own event space,” Donaldson said. “Catering for an event could be sourced by all of the different vendors inside of the market.”

St. Roch has done a version of this by cordoning off the back portion of the market or hosting events in a building next door, he said.

This new food market will join a growing number in the city, including St. Roch,  Roux Carre, which opened in December in Central City with eight vendors; and . the new Pythian Market in the Central Business District, which is set to open in late 2017 as well.http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2017/04/st_roch_market_owners_plan_new.html