The four-story landmark known as Delray Beach Market — billed as the largest food hall in Florida when it opened in 2021 — is poised to come back to life after staying closed for the past year.
This weekend, it’s marking an early step toward again welcoming the public: An upscale sports bar will become its first tenant to open as part of ongoing renovation plans. A larger goal will be to fully reopen the entire Delray Beach Market by the end of 2025.
Bounce Delray Beach, at 33 SE Third Ave., is having its soft opening Saturday. Among its attractions: a 60-foot-wide LED wall, more than 20 other screens that constitute a “TV chandelier” for visitors to watch games, a 360-degree bar, and a medley of menu items and live music offerings.
Bounce is just the start. There are two other signed tenants: New Jersey-based Greek-inspired restaurant Lefkes Estiatorio, as well as Good Night John Boy, a ’70s disco-themed dance club and bar. And more plans are still afoot beyond that.
“Delray has become Delray because of the restaurants and bar scene,” said Jeff Sussman, the president of Sussman Restaurant Brokerage, which is behind the market. “Once you’re (at Delray Beach Market), you will have a choice of several different locations. In other words, you could have dinner at one place and then go and have a drink at another place and then walk next door and dance at the disco.”
Cole Bernard, a partner with Brandit Hospitality Group, the operating team for Bounce Delray Beach, is looking forward to Saturday’s opening.
“Whether you’re coming out for an Inter Miami soccer game or you’re coming out for a Miami Heat basketball playoff game during the week, it’s going to be the premier destination for sports viewing,” Bernard said.
Bounce was originally intended to open in the fall of 2022 in the city’s $300 million Atlantic Crossing development, which sits on Atlantic Avenue just east of Federal Highway. But those plans were scrapped largely after residents living around the area expressed concerns for late-night noise spurred by the club’s planned 2 a.m. closing time.
Instead, Bounce decided to open in the Delray Beach Market, which is about a half-mile west of Atlantic Crossing. Its new location will let Bounce remain open late and be an important tenant for the market, which shut down early last year to undergo a revamp.
Some construction delays kept the bar from kicking off earlier, Bernard said. “Bounce is excited to finally open its doors in Delray,” he said. “It’s been years in the making.”
It’ll be a “sports bar, meets entertainment venue, meets restaurant.” After an initial “soft launch,” the grand opening will take place in April, Bernard said.
Bounce has three other locations — two in New York and one in Chicago. Bernard added: “It being a true sports bar with day life and nightlife on the weekend, it’s just a new element that really hasn’t hit this part of town.”
It will be open 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. from Monday through Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Looking toward next year
The Delray Beach Market is expected to be fully reopened by the end of 2025, after facing some hurdles, including challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The market, billed as a food hall, first shut down on Jan. 30, 2023, and was originally going to reopen in the summer of that year. Rising food prices, inflation and labor costs were all factors that led to the remodeling decision.
“The demise of the food hall was the demise of many businesses,” Sussman said. “It was just too difficult for each of the vendors to keep up with it.”
Now, amid the new plans, Delray Beach Market is also considering bringing in “a very famous Italian restaurant out of New York City that has been around for ages,” Sussman said.
Plans are also in the works to create “a very sexy, unique entrance from the front door leading to the escalators going up to the mezzanine, and we’re looking for the right tenant there,” Sussman said.
“We’ve been kind of holding off on picking the right one. We’ve had a lot of interest in this particular space to do a private club, a speakeasy,” he said. “We’ve curated this building to be really kind of like an eater-tainment establishment within the city.
“So we’re being very, very choosy about who we pick to take the mezzanine space.”
The careful curation of tenants along with features such as a parking garage are hoped to make the new and improved market a magnet for the city.
“What we’ve accomplished here is really to take a building that’s in one of the best markets in the country and in an area that is just known for restaurants and bars and people watching, and we’ve created something really special basically under one roof,” Sussman said.
Rob Long, who serves as a city commissioner and Community Redevelopment Agency commissioner, said he’s excited to see the market reopen for the community. Long and his fiancée, Alexandria Ayala, a Palm Beach County School Board member, intend to drop by Bounce on Saturday after the city’s Saint Patrick’s Day festivities.
“We’re anxious to see what the second version of the market is going to look like, (and) hope it is something that is more sustainable for the community, and we’re excited to see what’s in store,” he said.
