A Hawaiian developer’s planned food hall in Las Vegas is more than a plan to connect with the region’s growing Asian population. It shows how these culinary properties are making their comeback from the pandemic as they center on experience-focused retail settings.
Construction is underway on Stix Asia, set to open this fall at the mixed-use UnCommons development about 10 miles west of the Las Vegas Strip. Stix Asia developer and CEO Frank Clark is building an 18,000-square-foot food hall based on his concept that has drawn big crowds since opening in 2023 at Waikiki Shopping Plaza in Honolulu.
The Las Vegas project is pulling out the stops, with 12 local and international restaurants selling foods from Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea and Vietnam, live cooking stations, indoor and outdoor lounges, and seating for about 400.
While the current economy is shaky, the food hall concept is in expansion mode after COVID-19 kept customers away, spurred closings and raised questions about its staying power.
There are now about 450 multitenant food halls operating in the U.S., compared with around 220 in 2019, and the number of projects in the pipeline grew about 25% between 2023 and 2025, according to a January report from restaurant industry advisory firm Colicchio Consulting.
The New York-based firm led by former Cushman & Wakefield executive Phil Colicchio said 96 food halls are on track to open nationwide in 2026: 26 in urban markets and 70 in suburban or peripheral markets. Projects on average span 19,000 square feet and are designed to host eight vendors.
Widespread expansions
The growth is nationwide. Florida leads for planned projects at 17, followed by California and New York with 11 each, and Georgia and Texas tied with nine.
“Taken together, these figures illustrate a national food hall movement that has matured and continues to accelerate,” Colicchio analysts said in the report. “Operators continue to refine their models, developers remain engaged, and the public appetite for social, flexible and entertaining dining environments remains strong.”
There's no guarantee that all the food hall plans will be developed at a time of higher interest rates and inflation, with some consumers cutting back on discretionary spending. And those food hall projects that are completed may struggle to compete with smaller operations with lower overhead.
Clark, the CEO of Stix Asia who is also the founder of Hawaiian real estate brokerage Real Select International, has not yet announced the full tenant list for the Vegas food hall beyond the mix of internationally known chefs and local purveyors.
The food hall will also have a DJ booth to “bring nighttime energy to the space,” Clark said in a statement. Plans call for the venue to serve as a cultural gathering space for the 40-acre UnCommons development, where numerous office, retail and apartment components have already been completed by Matter Real Estate Group and are nearly fully leased up.
“Our mission has always been to craft more than just a dining experience,” Clark said in the statement.
Las Vegas has among the nation’s largest populations of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders and is often referred to as Hawaii’s Ninth Island. Developers said the planned Stix Asia food hall offerings reflect Hawaii’s cultural influences from its own large contingent of Asian immigrants.
UnCommons developer Jim Stuart, co-founder and partner in Matter Real Estate Group, said locally focused community elements like the planned Stix Asia food hall have helped shield the $850 million mixed-use project from the past year’s significant tourism slowdown in the Las Vegas region.
Seeking cultural appeal
It's a slowdown that has affected a variety of businesses, especially in hospitality.
He's hoping to overcome that by appealing to a targeted cultural group.
“The residential base surrounding our campus represents one of the highest concentrations of Asian and Islander residents in Las Vegas,” Stuart told CoStar News.
He added that the food hall will join other community-focused programming already presented on a year-round basis by UnCommons’ developers, including live music, farmers markets and art festivals.
Stuart noted that Las Vegas, like most tourism-driven markets, is navigating a more cautious consumer environment right now.
“But UnCommons was never built for the visitor economy,” Stuart said. “It was purpose-built for the 2.5 million people who actually live here, and that’s who shows up every day.”
“Our tenant mix is deliberate,” Stuart said. “Many of these concepts exist nowhere else in the Las Vegas Valley, and that exclusivity creates genuine loyalty.”