In 2013, on a windy stretch of 11th Avenue in Manhattan the Gotham Organization, an NYC developer, built a new residential high rise. Rather than installing a Duane Reade or Citibank as its first floor commercial tenant, it built something it thought might draw people westward: a 10,000-square-foot urban food bazaar, serving everything from tacos to pizza to ramen.

In modern metropolises, where rent is high and space is tight, mixed-use spaces can be community hubs as well as viable business operations. LA’s Grand Central Market, which opened in 1917, is one of the oldest still-thriving food halls; New York City’s Chelsea Market erected its retail spaces, which also rent to full-service restaurant operators, in the late 1990s; and San Francisco’s Ferry Building started renting food counter stalls to local purveyors in 2002. When Gotham West Market opened five years ago, it was following in the footsteps of these earlier markets, but added modern conveniences and targeted marketing that helped ignite a new trend.

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