West Oakland dilapidated buildings restored into new community food hall
West Oakland is home to a new community food hall, Prescott Market.
Previously dilapidated buildings were restored and repurposed to be a gathering space for food, drinks and entertainment.
The owner of Woo Can Cook, Wesley Woo, became involved early on.
"I believe I was the first tenant that had signed a lease here," Woo said.
He was operating Woo Can Cook as a pop restaurant.
At the time, he was looking for a permanent space but everything was out of his price range or didn't have a vacancy, then he heard about the new community food hall.
"I just knew that something cool was going to happen here so I wanted to be a part of it," Woo said looking around his new kitchen.
Woo has lived in Oakland for more than two decades, but for the last two years, he's lived in West Oakland, just walking distance from this facility.
"I've seen this neighborhood change quite a bit," Woo said, thinking back to the last two years. "All of the train tracks are gone. All of the streets are suddenly paved."
General Manager of Prescott Market Harv Singh says the changes were wanted.
"I think the community has been waiting for something like this," Singh said.
The hall currently has nine businesses and room for one more, all local restaurants, a coffee shop and a taproom.
Singh says it took three years and a lot of work to get to Saturday's grand opening.
"We did have to do a lot of cleaning up but there were already some good things happening here, but we just added to that," Singh said about the neighborhood.
Prescott Market was already in the process of building out when it was announced they'd have new neighbors, the Oakland Ballers. They play all of their home games a block away from the food hall at Raimondi Park.
Woo says Raimondi Park was a mess when he first moved in, but has been transformed into a destination.
"Honestly at some point, we had to stop walking our dog there because it was just so covered in goose poop that she would just eat all of it," said Woo describing what Raimondi Park looked like two years ago. "So that part had become unhabitable."
He expects Ballers games to be a big event for the neighborhood.
"It's going to be great for business," Woo said. "It's also pretty scary because I don't know how to serve 5,000 people."
He said he and all of the vendors are excited to figure it out and to help build something bigger than their individual businesses.
"It's not just creating something for you to eat, but creating a community for you to be a part of while you eat it," Woo said.
Revitalizing West Oakland with the community in mind.
