A little more than six months after Heartland left its prime space in the historic Market House building across from CHS Field in downtown St. Paul’s Lowertown district, there’s a new tenant moving in, and it’s a big one.

Chef Tim McKee, who recently joined the Fish Guys, a local sustainable seafood supplier, as a partner, is behind the new project, which will be a trendy food hall, including a seafood market, a butcher, a bakery and a restaurant. The project will be called the Market House Collaborative.

“I’ve always thought it would be a good thing for the Fish Guys to have an outwardly facing way for people to buy our product,” McKee said. “I’m just crazy about fish. Always have been, but now that I’m part of the Fish Guys, it’s opened my exposure to what’s actually available. I’m ridiculously excited about doing this.”

McKee, who is behind recently closed French fine-dining institution La Belle Vie, Sea Change at the Guthrie, Masu Sushi and Robata, and more, said the restaurant will be a somewhat casual seafood restaurant.

The bakery and meat market will be run by outside collaborators, but leases haven’t yet been signed and McKee is mum on who they will be. He said they will likely be able to say who the partners are within a few weeks.

“There will be sandwiches available at the bakery, maybe some at the butcher shop, and there will be a coffee element to the bakery,” McKee said. Related Articles Pearl and the Thief is back, for now, and it’s worth the price of admission

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But much of the emphasis will be on shopping, for quality seafood, meat and baked goods, all under one roof.

“We really want to be a year-round extension of the St. Paul Farmers’ Market,” McKee said of his location, which is across the street from the market. “What we’ll add to that synergy will be great. We’ll be the spot to get all the high quality things you want, and it’s all in one place.”

Another dynamic of the shopping: McKee said if you see some great razor clams or a ribeye that aren’t on the restaurant menu, they’ll cook them for you right there.

“There will be that kind of collaborative dynamic to the space,” he said.

McKee, who grew up in St. Paul, said he’s excited to bring his project to this side of the river in the space occupied by chef Lenny Russo’s innovative Heartland restaurant from 2010 until its Dec. 31 closing.

“St. Paul is really in the middle of a rediscovery and an explosion of great restaurants,” he said. “I”m loving that. There’s so many great things going on.”

Russo said McKee is leasing 12,000 square feet of the former Heartland space, leaving about 7,000 square feet still available to other tenants, or for expansion of the concept.