Mother Road Market is a 27,000 square-foot food hall in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The space houses twenty different vendors made up of both retail and restaurant concepts serving pizza, tacos, burgers, fried chicken, and much more. This food hall was opened in November 2018 by the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation (LTFF) — an organization offering programs and grants to aid entrepreneurs in Tulsa. Mother Road Market was opened by LTFF to support community businesses by offering affordable spaces for restaurants and retail entrepreneurs to test and grow their concepts without investing in a full-scale location.
Kitchen Ventilation Objective
The objective for Mother Road Market was to outfit each of its 11 commercial kitchens with safe and durable equipment that was economically efficient. The mission of Mother Road Market is to offer budding businesses an affordable space in which to grow, controlling upfront costs to ensure that the kitchens would not be cost-prohibitive to start-up concepts. Building multiple commercial kitchens into a shared, existing space required considerable upfront costs, making it necessary for Mother Road Market to select cost-efficient ventilation systems. Each kitchen also needed to be equipped in a manner that could suit many different cooking types and loads, as the aesthetics of each kitchen were unknown during the installation process and would frequently change after completion.
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Mother Road Market Rooftop Exhaust Fans and MUA Unit
Solution
Eleven Accurex wall canopy exhaust hoods, model XBEW, were selected to outfit each of the commercial kitchens within Mother Road Market. These hoods were installed with baffle filters, the cost-effective industry-standard for exhaust hoods, which can be easily removed and cleaned in a commercial dishwasher. Exhaust hoods were designed with 18 inches of overhang beyond the appliances to comply with local code requirements. Each hood was also equipped with LED lighting to meet local health department standards and to provide a highly efficient and safe illumination solution. To protect against potential fire risk, Duravent® Zero Clearance prefabricated grease ducts and Amerex® KP fire suppression systems were installed. This listed, factory-built grease duct, simplified the installation process with its modular design which does not require welding. To further control installation costs, the Amerex® fire suppression system was chosen for its pre-piped system and prefilled tanks. Upblast exhaust fans, model XRUB, were chosen and mounted on the roof. These exhaust fans are designed specifically for roof-mounted applications and are capable of exhausting 200 to 30,000 cfm. Because numerous exhaust fans were needed to serve all of the commercial kitchen spaces, the XRUB fan was chosen for its durability, efficiency, and low sound levels. To temper and return comfortable air back into the space, Accurex direct gas heated make-up air units, model XDG, were installed at Mother Road Market. These make-up air units are able to return 800 to 15,000 cfm and have efficient heating capacities up to 1,600,000 BTU per hour. The efficient line burner used in this model reduces energy costs while controlling temperature, and they are constructed of durable stainless steel mixing plates and cast aluminum manifolds that ensure reliable use year after year. To control the entire system of ventilation products from one location, the Accurex XFCC fan control centers were also installed. The XFCC is prewired and UL listed which reduces the time and cost associated with installation.
What We Achieved
By integrating the Accurex® complete kitchen ventilation solution, Mother Road Market was able to control installation costs for the 11 commercial kitchen spaces in this food hall. Managing costs at the installation stage allowed Mother Road Market to offer affordable cooking and retail spaces to twenty local vendors. The efficient and durable kitchen ventilation solutions also provide reliable functionality for years to come as successful vendors transition into their own brick-and-mortar locations and new entrepreneurs take their place at Mother Road Market.
"Accurex was able to creatively and efficiently handle all of the challenges associated with our complex space. The ability to find value and quality from one ventilation partner helped simplify construction for Mother Road Market."
- Jeff Thompson, Director of Food and Retail Strategy for Mother Road Market
