SLO is getting a new makers marketplace for food and drink. Here’s what’s planned
A new makers marketplace in San Luis Obispo will bring together about 15 businesses focusing on or wine, beer, spirits and food production and service.
Duncan Alley, owned by the SLO development company CoVelop, is now leasing tenant spaces of roughly between 1,000 and 10,000 square feet at 3197 Duncan Road, located at the corner of Orcutt Road.
Damien Mavis, a CoVelop partner, said that the company envisions a new marketplace geared to the dining and tasting industry — where businesses also produce on site.
“Basically, the idea is that we’re looking for makers who are in the food and beverage industry looking for a place to make their product and then also looking for a cool, collaborative place to sell it to the public,” said Mavis, whose company operates The Creamery Marketplace.
Duncan Alley doesn’t have any names in place yet as the owners work out lease agreements with prospective tenants, Mavis said.
“At this point, 100% of the new tenants have to have a food and beverage manufacturing component,” Mavis said. “So, the idea is that you’d be tasting the wine that’s made 15 feet from where you’re sitting. Or you’d be tasting the coffee that’s roasted in the same space.”
Other potential tenants could be those who operate food trucks and need a commissary where they can prepare and store their food for their truck, but then “they’re also selling it at a counter in the front,” Mavis said.
Lease spaces
The property currently has three separate warehouse buildings that can be converted into spaces for specific business uses.
“Most of it was vacant when we took it over,” Mavis said. “We’ll go in and clean it out, and depending on the tenants needs, upgrade spaces to add cooling for a winery, for example. Whatever the tenants need, we’ll work on that.”
There isn’t a set date to start opening spaces to the public, but Mavis said that in 2022 we “fully expect to be up and running and operational.”
The area has seen the influx of new housing along Orcutt Road, including the new Avivo Townhomes built on the property across the street, the former site that include the old Bang the Drum spot (Bang the Drum now operates at 1150 Laurel Lane, Suite 130).
Mavis said he expects people from the neighborhoods, workers and families to frequent the hub.
He also expects the tenants to be mostly Central Coast business owners.
“In that area, there really isn’t that type of gathering spot,” Mavis said. “We envision this as the ‘third place’ that people go to. It’s not where you live, it’s not where you work, but it’s where you choose to hang out, like we tried to do with the Creamery.”
This story was originally published January 25, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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