The Hugh

Location: Midtown Manhattan 

Building: Citigroup Center

Partner: Boston Properties 

Project Specs

# of SQ Ft:  27, 000 

# of Vendors: 15+

Tasked to transform an existing 80’s food court into a sophisticated dining space, Local Culture designed and constructed a new culinary destination within the food desert of Midtown East. One of the main complexities of this project was that it required conceptualizing not only the leasable square footage but designing with city regulations around a privately owned public space in mind. From gut-renovating the interior to overseeing the individual design and construction of vendor kiosks, Local Culture created a multi-tenant food and beverage concept with 15 restaurants including a wine bar, a cocktail bar, a speakeasy, and a craft beer tap room surrounding a large central seating area. 

The Hugh is a culinary collective highlighting the work of award-winning and innovative chefs. With elevated culinary experiences for any occasion, The Hugh allows for food and beverage programming to seamlessly transition from breakfast to lunch to dinner. 

Project Scope

Planning & Development 

• Determine vision for the former food court

• Tailor design to a young office worker.

• Design with multi service capablities (Day to Night Transition) 

Construction Management 

• Choose designs teams 

• interviewed construction company

• Partnered with developer on all aspects of construction 

Curation and Leasing 

• Identification of market hall vendors 

• Created leasing agreements with focus on protecting managing and pricing the ability to remove underperforming vendors 

• Creating deal terms with an emphasis on pricing of rents to attract long-term vendors 

• Manage all licensee legal issues 

• Manage licensee selection and termination

• Sought and received a difficult to obtain full liquor permit for the space. 

Management and Reporting 

• Negotiated point of the sale contract 

• Built daily management team 

• Manage all marketing, web and social media

• Manage all facility maintenance 

• Oversees Monthly rent collection 

• Manage all required reporting