Three restaurants reached deals with The Marshall, an eight-story student apartment complex near Syracuse University, to open locations in the building’s first-floor, commercial space.

The Halal Guys, I Heart Mac & Cheese and Kung Fu Tea will join Blaze Pizza, which had announced its plans to locate to The Marshall in November, according to Syracuse.com.

“It’s going to change the entire culture of the Marshall Street area,” said Jared Hutter, CEO and co-founder of real estate development firm Aptitude Development, which owns The Marshall.  “I think nobody has curated the retail there for a very long time.”

The Marshall officially opened in mid-September after construction displays displaced 287 tenants who had previously been told that construction would be completed by the beginning of the fall 2018 semester.

Hutter said that while each restaurant will open on an individual basis, he expects all of them to open at some point during the spring semester.

Joon Park, an office administrator for The Halal Guys Inc., said he expects the restaurant to open at some point in 2019, possibly in the middle of the year. A representative from Kung Fu Tea said it should open in the next few months, and I Heart Mac & Cheese’s website says the restaurant will open in spring 2019.

The Halal Guys, headquartered in New York City, is an American Halal take-out restaurant that started on a hot dog cart in New York City, according to its website. Since 1990, it has expanded to more than 60 restaurants across the country, and has locations in Canada, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

I Heart Mac & Cheese is a takeout restaurant that primarily serves customizable macaroni and cheese and grilled cheese sandwiches, according to its website. They have three other locations in New York and more than 12 locations nationwide.

Kung Fu Tea, headquartered in New York City, has more than 30 locations across New York, including Destiny USA in Syracuse, according to its website. The take-out tea establishment also has locations across the country as well as in Canada, Australia and Vietnam.

Other companies will likely join the restaurants, Hutter said. He said he has talked with other companies about additional retail space inside The Marshall.

“It’s really important to pick retailers that we think are going to survive in the market for a very long time and ultimately thrive,” Hutter said. “We really care about the community and we really want to put in things that will benefit not only our residents but benefit the entire area as a whole.”

Published on December 20, 2018 at 1:51 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326