St. Pete’s Historic Manhattan Casino is a famed event space where the city’s Black population went to go watch famous Black musicians like James Brown and Ray Charles perform. Just a couple years ago, the building  reemerged as Callaloo and Pipo’s To Go. Unfortunately, the building shut down at the beginning of quarantine.

Vincent Jackson and his partners Mario Farias and Ramon Hernandez decided to reopen the Historic Manhattan Casino as a food hall to give the building a facelift and revitalize the area. They’ve partnered with the Rising Tide Innovation Center to include a co-working space and added a few new eating options. Everything is tentative but the food hall opens soon.

“Tampa Bay is quickly becoming a hotbed for several upcoming food hall concepts coming to the area in the next few months. Don’t forget to add The Historic Manhattan Casino’s food hall to your list when it opens early October. The landmark is getting a facelift two years after its grand reopening with restaurants Callaloo and Pipo’s To Go.

“We’re creating more of a destination. This space will have more uses than what we started with previously,” Vincent Jackson, Vice President of The Callaloo Group, tells CL.

Jackson, a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer who stayed invested in the community, along with partners Mario Farias and Ramon Hernandez, is transitioning the space into a destination that works as a launching pad for smaller, local businesses. The transformation began earlier this year with a partnership with Leigh Fletcher and Tina Fischer of co-working space Rising Tide Innovation Center. Jackson says the partnership brings a new crowd and a new look to the building located at 22nd St. S in S. Petersburg. Jackson says once Fletcher and Fischer understood what the lease entailed and how the historic building serves the youth and community, they were on board.

“We were able to partner with them and bring that vibe into our space to create more space and consistency with patrons in the building,” Jackson explains.”

Follow the Manhattan Casino here, here, and here. Get more deets about the new food hall here.