MONTEBELLO, Calif. — A new artisan food hall opened in downtown Montebello to help revitalize the economy and community through great eats from local vendors.

BLVD MRKT is also home to an incubator program that supports small restaurants getting their start.

Miguel Garcia is a co-owner of Los Taquero Mucho, one of the restaurants in the incubator program. After leaving the banking business behind, he teamed with his family to open the taco pop-up at his parents' house. From there, they catered many events and now have their first storefront at BLVD MRKT.

“It’s something I always had a passion for,” said Garcia.

For a two-year period, BLVD MRKT will provide a fully equipped shared kitchen with access to capital and mentors to restaurants just starting out. But the market is also home to those who are a little more solidified in their business and pay rent for the space.

"It was a big help, where we didn’t need any funds, because they provided the kitchen equipment," Garcia said. "It was a blessing."

This was all from the mind of Barney Santos, who created BLVD MRKT to open the incubator program and revitalize the downtown area of Montebello. His wife was born and raised there. He’s been living in the community for 10 years and saw a need.

"How do we take what we know, the resources we have, and help change the narrative within downtown Montebello?" said Santos. "For the longest time, this downtown was underinvested in and had broken windows, graffiti and empty storefronts. For us, I was really disappointed. Why can’t we as a Latino community have really nice things? Why can’t we have stuff we can be proud of?"

Montebello has a population of over 63,000, and 79% of residents are Latino. The city has seen a recent demographic shift due to many younger locals getting higher-paying jobs but actually staying in the community. Santos spent over a year speaking with residents, learning the problems and the best ways to address them.

"Employ people locally," he said. "Get entrepreneurs to launch businesses here locally, and that inspires the next generation of people to say, 'You know what? If they can do that, I can do it too.' And maybe they can take up the empty storefronts and spaces that are here also."

A councilmember for the city of Montebello. Salvador Melendez has been a supporter of the development since the initial idea in 2015. He knows how important it is to bring life back to downtown.

"This project is going to be the catalyst to get the downtown going," he said. "We are going to have some affordable housing that’s going to be right in front of it. More businesses will want to come in because of this project. Now it’s not just been able to keep the people here, but also bring in people from outside to come in here."

Garcia hopes this is just the beginning for Los Taquero Mucho. He wants to open a full restaurant when the program is over, right in the city that gave him his start.

"Every single day, a lot of locals say, 'Finally, we have something to do.' This is where we first started, and people supported us, so we want to stay local," said Garcia.

Stay local, shop local and support local at BLVD MRKT located at 520 Whittier Blvd in Montebello, Calif.