James Beard Public Market | Proposed

[urbanlife]

yeah, that is a sweet building and might be one of the best sites for it in the long run. There is the parking lot that could go back to being a park. The vacant block to the east. The post office building. All of which could easily grow into something quite amazing aroung the market.

[PDX City-State]

Public Marketing?????

What’s missing from the push for a portland public market? The public.

Last Friday night, more than 500 Portlanders paid $50 apiece to attend a fundraiser at Union Station for the proposed Portland Public Market. The iconic train station was packed with people excited by the idea of creating a local version of Seattle’s Pike Place Market, mostly well-heeled Portlanders slurping pinot and chowing vittles by stalwart chefs with names like Paley and Higgins to the tune of a live jazz duo.

The market does sounds like a perfect fit for food-obsessed PDX. Too bad this same party has been taking place for nearly a decade. Although, in the latest twist, a new site for the market emerged just 48 hours before the soiree.

Since 1999, chef turned politico Ron Paul and a cadre of local foodies and bureaucrats have been on a mission to land a public market downtown. The crusade was sparked in 1993 when Heidi Yorkshire, a volunteer for Portland Farmers Market (now a WW contributor), wrote a proposal for a public market hall with rent-paying tenants that could provide a permanent, year-round home for the Portland Farmers Market.

This blueprint became the framework for the Public Market. However, it soon became clear that the proposed site, Ankeny Square, couldn’t accommodate the growing downtown Farmers Market, and the parties went their separate ways. The Farmers Market stayed in the downtown Park Blocks, and Paul and company focused on the concept of a separate Public Market filled with local produce, vendors and restaurants.

Nearly a decade later, the two markets no longer aim to fill the same niche. “The Public Market opens economic opportunities for farms that are too big for a farmers market,” says City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who’s a member of the Public Market board. “But still committed to the ideals of sustainability.”

To date, the Public Market concept has garnered $470,000 in earmarked congressional funding ($300,000 was contingent on the Ankeny Square site). It’s raised approximately $70,000 more at various fundraisers. Meanwhile, the proposed site for the Public Market has changed twice just in the past year. Union Station was the preferred spot until last Wednesday, when real-estate developer the Melvin Mark Company announced it had struck a deal with the Public Market Foundation to house the Public Market in a federal building at 511 NW Broadway, currently occupied by the Department of Homeland Security. But don’t get hungry yet. Paul says the project will not be completed until 2013—at the earliest.

Great...so why is this all taking so long? Paul blames the long delay on funding and a lack of political will. But I think a local PR guru has a better answer:

“The market is not part of daily conversation,” says Lisa Donoughe, a local media-relations strategist. “Initiatives like this need to be integrated into the community on all levels so the buzz builds and builds.”

Interesting. Now, let’s take a closer look at who wasn’t at Friday night’s fundraiser:

I didn’t see any of the ethnic food vendors, farmers, fishmongers and cheese merchants who would fill the proposed market’s stalls. And where were the chocolatiers and the butchers? Most importantly, where were the young and roguish Portland chefs getting so much ink in top food publications? How do they feel about a PDX public market?

“I don’t really know anything about it, to be honest,” says Andy Ricker, whose Thai shack Pok Pok was featured last week in a dashing New York Times write-up.

Of the six chefs I queried, only Le Pigeon’s Gabriel Rucker knew about the fundraiser, but that’s because he was asked to take part. (He gave a cooking demo later that weekend at Williams-Sonoma in the Washington Square Mall.)

While the public market has floundered, its inspiration, the Portland Farmers Market, has grown into a financially stable entity operating four markets, three days a week, nine months of the year—and without a penny of the dole.

“The city hasn’t given us dick,” says Farmers Market Vice President and Park Kitchen chef-owner Scott Dolich. “And we haven’t asked for dick.”

The city charges the Farmers Market $1,750 a month to use its public land, even as the market lures around 500,000 shoppers downtown each year. To put that in perspective, Seattle charges its city’s Neighborhood Farmer’s Market Association $200 for an entire season at one of its farmers markets. I’d argue that the secret to its success is exactly what the Public Market is missing—it feels homegrown.

So we have a thriving Farmers Market network that’s not being helped by the city, and we have a Public Market that is a superb idea but still stuck on the drawing board. Paul says in order for the market to open sometime this century the city needs to allocate an additional $8 million in funding, but the city isn’t even supporting our market that already exists.

These questions need to be addressed. In the meantime, maybe the Portland Public Market should rethink its audience to include all those vendors, young chefs and Portlanders who can’t afford to shell out $50 for a staid fundraising dinner and start building the kind of enthusiasm and momentum that national publications seem to say our food scene already has. That is, if it ever wants to resonate with any local community larger than cheese-nibbling benefactors.

[mcbaby]

Originally Posted by PDX City-State

Public Marketing?????

What’s missing from the push for a portland public market? The public.

Last Friday night, more than 500 Portlanders paid $50 apiece to attend a fundraiser at Union Station for the proposed Portland Public Market. The iconic train station was packed with people excited by the idea of creating a local version of Seattle’s Pike Place Market, mostly well-heeled Portlanders slurping pinot and chowing vittles by stalwart chefs with names like Paley and Higgins to the tune of a live jazz duo.

The market does sounds like a perfect fit for food-obsessed PDX. Too bad this same party has been taking place for nearly a decade. Although, in the latest twist, a new site for the market emerged just 48 hours before the soiree.

Since 1999, chef turned politico Ron Paul and a cadre of local foodies and bureaucrats have been on a mission to land a public market downtown. The crusade was sparked in 1993 when Heidi Yorkshire, a volunteer for Portland Farmers Market (now a WW contributor), wrote a proposal for a public market hall with rent-paying tenants that could provide a permanent, year-round home for the Portland Farmers Market.

This blueprint became the framework for the Public Market. However, it soon became clear that the proposed site, Ankeny Square, couldn’t accommodate the growing downtown Farmers Market, and the parties went their separate ways. The Farmers Market stayed in the downtown Park Blocks, and Paul and company focused on the concept of a separate Public Market filled with local produce, vendors and restaurants.

Nearly a decade later, the two markets no longer aim to fill the same niche. “The Public Market opens economic opportunities for farms that are too big for a farmers market,” says City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who’s a member of the Public Market board. “But still committed to the ideals of sustainability.”

To date, the Public Market concept has garnered $470,000 in earmarked congressional funding ($300,000 was contingent on the Ankeny Square site). It’s raised approximately $70,000 more at various fundraisers. Meanwhile, the proposed site for the Public Market has changed twice just in the past year. Union Station was the preferred spot until last Wednesday, when real-estate developer the Melvin Mark Company announced it had struck a deal with the Public Market Foundation to house the Public Market in a federal building at 511 NW Broadway, currently occupied by the Department of Homeland Security. But don’t get hungry yet. Paul says the project will not be completed until 2013—at the earliest.

Great...so why is this all taking so long? Paul blames the long delay on funding and a lack of political will. But I think a local PR guru has a better answer:

“The market is not part of daily conversation,” says Lisa Donoughe, a local media-relations strategist. “Initiatives like this need to be integrated into the community on all levels so the buzz builds and builds.”

Interesting. Now, let’s take a closer look at who wasn’t at Friday night’s fundraiser:

I didn’t see any of the ethnic food vendors, farmers, fishmongers and cheese merchants who would fill the proposed market’s stalls. And where were the chocolatiers and the butchers? Most importantly, where were the young and roguish Portland chefs getting so much ink in top food publications? How do they feel about a PDX public market?

“I don’t really know anything about it, to be honest,” says Andy Ricker, whose Thai shack Pok Pok was featured last week in a dashing New York Times write-up.

Of the six chefs I queried, only Le Pigeon’s Gabriel Rucker knew about the fundraiser, but that’s because he was asked to take part. (He gave a cooking demo later that weekend at Williams-Sonoma in the Washington Square Mall.)

While the public market has floundered, its inspiration, the Portland Farmers Market, has grown into a financially stable entity operating four markets, three days a week, nine months of the year—and without a penny of the dole.

“The city hasn’t given us dick,” says Farmers Market Vice President and Park Kitchen chef-owner Scott Dolich. “And we haven’t asked for dick.”

The city charges the Farmers Market $1,750 a month to use its public land, even as the market lures around 500,000 shoppers downtown each year. To put that in perspective, Seattle charges its city’s Neighborhood Farmer’s Market Association $200 for an entire season at one of its farmers markets. I’d argue that the secret to its success is exactly what the Public Market is missing—it feels homegrown.

So we have a thriving Farmers Market network that’s not being helped by the city, and we have a Public Market that is a superb idea but still stuck on the drawing board. Paul says in order for the market to open sometime this century the city needs to allocate an additional $8 million in funding, but the city isn’t even supporting our market that already exists.

These questions need to be addressed. In the meantime, maybe the Portland Public Market should rethink its audience to include all those vendors, young chefs and Portlanders who can’t afford to shell out $50 for a staid fundraising dinner and start building the kind of enthusiasm and momentum that national publications seem to say our food scene already has. That is, if it ever wants to resonate with any local community larger than cheese-nibbling benefactors.

right on!

[pdxman]

Now it looks like PNCA is interested in the broadway building too...it will be interesting to see what happens with that. If they really do want it, my guess is that the public market will lose out because of $.

[MarkDaMan]

PNCA, Public Market spar over 511 Building
Two potential tenants fight over one property, with each arguing it would be a ‘catalyst’ for Old Town
POSTED: 05:00 AM PST Wednesday, October 31, 2007
BY TYLER GRAF
Daily Journal of Commerce

An Old Town Internet café was hot and bustling Monday as two vying interests lobbied Portlanders and the city’s Development Commission to be the next tenant of a redeveloped 511 Building.

The PDC intended the gathering to be an opportunity for neighborhood residents to offer input on the redevelopment of the historic 91-year-old property. But lacking a formal presentation and encumbered by the modest location, some attendees left the Backspace café feeling frustrated.

Still, amid the throngs of Portland developers and residents, representatives for the building’s two would-be tenants – the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Portland Public Market – lobbied for their prospective developments.

Across from the PDC’s display outlining its redevelopment criteria was an area for the public to post comments. But 40 minutes passed without a single one. The message board – large segments of construction paper – went unadorned; then a woman began writing, leaving the first public comment of the evening.

Laura Hill sits on the PNCA board and believes the school would best fit the neighborhood. For her, the redevelopment is more about the potential of the district – a vital and quickly developing link between Old Town and the Pearl District – than simply about one building. She says she’s “disappointed” the PDC isn’t framing the discussions that way.

“Having been through the building, I agree that it should be an avenue for as many people as possible,” Hill said. “Because it’s historic, you can’t change the shell of the building.”

Hill envisions an anchor building that acts as a “catalyst” for future development – a building that grounds the neighborhood in arts, culture and education.

It isn’t a far cry from how the Portland Public Market views the building or the neighborhood either. Ron Paul, a Portland chef and former city staffer who is working on the Portland Public Market, said he “sees a catalyst at the 511 Building.”

“The time is right and ripe for redevelopment,” Paul said.

Disappointed by the meeting, Paul said he would have appreciated greater feedback from the PDC prior to the gathering. Although the PDC posted its development criteria, Monday’s gathering, Paul said, marked the first time he’d seen it.

The criteria for the 135,580-square-foot building include building it to green standards and implementing a public participation plan.

The Portland Public Market, Paul said, would create a market district, which he said is essential to community connectivity. Markets connect the urban – the consumers – with the rural – the providers – especially if the market isn’t “just interested in the yuppie food merchants,” he said.

By virtue of its status as a school, Paul says the PNCA would have a much easier time relocating to another location – he named the vacant U.S. Custom House as an example – and said the 511 Building is the only option for the Portland Public Market.

Hill said the PNCA has worked to secure the 511 Building for six months but has talked to other building owners as well. But with its voluminous ground floor and ample floor space, she said, the 511 Building is still the best location for the school.

The Portland Public Market, Paul says, would return the building to the tax rolls, house about 25 local businesses and employ about 250 people.

But Hill says the building has insufficient loading docks. Paul disagrees.

“The loading dock on Hoyt is one of the gifts of the building,” Paul said.

Overall, the building is only a piece in the PDC’s Broadway puzzle – there are development opportunities on adjacent blocks, running parallel to the 511 Building. And Lew Bowers of the PDC says Greyhound is amenable to selling its property on Sixth Avenue and cohabitating with Amtrak in Union Station.

“We want to work with friendly properties, or properties we have some control over,” Bowers said. But a move by Greyhound could create a problem for bus docking, so the discussions will continue.

Developer Art DeMuro of Venerable Properties was on hand and said that, if anything, he’d like the PDC to look at other potential tenants, and said its focus on only two potential tenants is too myopic.

“You only have two leading horses in that race,” DeMuro said.

In addition to PNCA and the Public Market, DeMuro would like more options – for-profit sectors that might have better opportunities to shore up revenue and keep afloat in the future.

Throughout the event, Hill maintained the PDC should do not only what is cost-effective but also what’s in the public’s best interest. And toward the end of the gathering, with three new messages added to the public sounding board, it appeared her feelings were shared.

“Respect historic character of the building,” one commenter wrote.

Review criteria for the building will be submitted by Nov. 15, while proposals are due Jan. 15, 2008.
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDeta...y-with-each-ar

[MarkDaMan]

I've heard that the Custom House to hotel project is pretty much dead. Why can't the Custom House hold one venue, and the 511 building the other?


Custom House (www.gsa.gov)

[PacificNW]

Great idea Mark! Although utilizing the Greyhound bus station as the market site has merits, also. I think the bus docks quandary at Union Station can be solved...especially if they place the bus loading area in the west area of the station where baggage claim is located.

[urbanlife]

between PNCA and the Portland Public Market, I think the market should take first priority between the two when it comes to joining areas together. That is something that will be a great service to all of Portland. PNCA is an expensive private art school, let them find their own space and pay market rate for it. If they really need a set number of open space, why not work with one of the developers and join into a new building or better yet, use the Customs House. That would give PNCA a bit of a prestigious look with that building in their portfolio.

[rsbear]

Ok, sorry to have to ask this, but what happened to bus depot? Is it no longer in use? If not, where's the Greyhound depot now days? Man, you leave town for 17 years and look what happens!

[PacificNW]

The Greyhound station is still located in their building situated next to Union Station....I understand they are open to relocating....probably if the price and location are right...

[sopdx]

The 511 building seems better suited for a public market w/the high ceilings, huge windows, it would have an old world feel to it. If the Customs House deal is dead, it seems like a perfect spot for PNCA and would be right next door to the recently refurbished Daisy Kindom building containing the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Blue Sky, etc...

[tworivers]

Ouch! Looks like PNCA is playing hardball. Too bad, because I'd much rather see a public market in that building.

PDC puts 511 Building on hold

POSTED: 12:57 PM PST Monday, November 12, 2007
BY TYLER GRAF

The Portland Development Commission announced Friday that it will stall the proposal process for the redevelopment of the 511 Building. There are currently two contenders for the building -- chef Ron Paul's open market, and the Pacific Northwest College of Art's new class space.

Earlier in the week, the PNCA told the PDC it was going directly to the General Services Administration, through the Department of Education, to acquire the building. They will ask for an Educational Use Transfer, which does not require the support of the PDC. Basically, the ball is in the GSA's court, and until it makes a decision the PDC will not make a move.

Interested parties can find out more at the Nov. 14 PDC board meeting.

[MarkDaMan]

yeah...hardball in Portland. I love it!!!

[zilfondel]

A pity. I liked their (prob more expensive) Allied Works campus proposal that has been in the works for the past few years. It would've contained their campus around the existing building they have.

[PDX City-State]

The PDC will vote this afternoon to stop the competitive process for the public market as PNCA, which has been pursuing this building for 14 months and actually has the money to transform it, is going to exercise its right to an educational-use transfer from GSA. Looks like the Public Market will be without a location as of 7pm this evening--unless something out-of-the-ordinary happens.

[PacificNW]

They still may have the Greyhound terminal option...

[MarkDaMan]

Thwarted, PDC cancels 511 RFP
The PNCA bypasses the agency and goes right to the government to ask for the property, which it always had the right to do
POSTED: 06:00 AM PST Friday, November 16, 2007
BY TYLER GRAF
Daily Journal of Commerce

The Portland Development Commission on Wednesday halted its proposal process for Old Town’s historic and federally owned 511 Building after the Pacific Northwest College of Art – one of two vocal contenders for the property along with local chef Ron Paul’s Portland Public Market – bailed out of the process to deal directly with the government.

After spending nine months studying an acquisition of the building, the PNCA decided to circumvent the PDC process and appeal directly to the federal Department of Education through the General Services Administration, which helps federal agencies obtain affordable real estate.

“For us to pass on going directly through the General Services Administration, it would be irresponsible,” Phyllis Oster, an adviser to the college, said

The GSA owns the property, not the PDC – a major sticking point for supporters of the art school who say the lack of specifics, and the preponderance of what-ifs, could conceivably bog the process down for everyone involved.

“Why are we going through all this time, effort and expense on a building the PDC doesn’t even have?” Laura Hill, chairwoman of a PNCA planning committee, said. “We might as well just pick another hypothetical building.”

Through the DOE, the college can acquire the property at negligible or no cost. Previously, the PDC hoped to get the property directly from the GSA and pass it along to either the PNCA, the public market and developer Melvin Mark, or a conceivable third party at fair market value.

“From the (PNCA’s) perspective, they will be receiving a property for practically free,” GSA spokesman Bill Lesh said.

Strict federal guidelines allow certain entities – including educational organizations – to obtain surplus government property for free. A non-negotiable sale is sometimes an option, but one not open to the college.

“Often a city government, in this case the PDC, would make arrangements to acquire the property for somebody who wasn’t eligible to buy it or get it directly,” Lesh said. And that’s what the PDC wanted to do.

Not anymore.

The coming year will pose challenges to the college, PNCA supporters say. The rapidly growing art school – enrollment has blossomed 44 percent since 2005 – has a burgeoning Master of Fine Arts program that began this fall.

And in early 2007, the school scored a $15 million gift from Southern Oregon philanthropist Hallie Ford – a gift Gov. Ted Kulongoski called one of the largest given to a cultural institution in Oregon.

“For us not to have a secure foundation, by not owning any of our own facilities, it really puts our future in jeopardy,” Oster said.

The government carefully scrutinizes organizations hoping to acquire property, to make sure they’re capable of maintaining the structural and aesthetic qualities of the buildings, Lesh said.

That shouldn’t be a problem according to the GSA and the school.

The increase in capital, along with the school’s perceived need to expand, make property ownership a paramount goal. The school currently leases its Pearl District building and is one of 37 independent art schools in the nation that doesn’t own any property.

But the resulting dissolution of the PDC process means Ron Paul’s proposed public market is once again on the backburner. For supporters of the market, it’s an inconceivable 180 degree shift from the PDC’s stated goals of only a month ago.

“What’s changed?” Paul asked the PDC board at Wednesday’s meeting.

According to representatives of the college, nothing, because the PDC and everyone involved in the process always knew the college could appeal directly to the government.

Still, Paul emphasized the strong partnership he’s forged with Melvin Mark and the public benefit his development would have on the community. He said he fears the PDC’s decision to halt the process will “rob the community and neighborhood groups from having a say.”

With the wheels set in motion, the PNCA now must file a formal application with the DOE, which will take at least three months to review it before passing it along to the GSA for a final decision.
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDeta...ment-to-ask-fo

[PDX City-State]

East and Eden

The public market has lost its digs. Should it shift its gaze eastward?

BY MIKE THELIN

After a Portland Development Commission vote, the Portland Public Market’s nearly decade-long search for a home has collapsed again.

The Pacific Northwest College of Art outmaneuvered backers of the proposed market, after both sought the historic 511 Broadway Building as a future home. Market supporters got the bad news when the PDC voted last Wednesday to bow out of the public process. PNCA exercised an option called an “educational-use transfer,” which gives academic institutions the right to bypass local processes and negotiate directly with the federal government, which owns the building.

In the past month, a lot of ink has been spilled in the local media trying to determine the best use of the 511 Building, and the PDC made the right choice. PNCA is a well-funded entity that has been around for a century while the public market has little momentum and doesn’t exist .

Before market backers regroup and home in on the next iconic building (in the past they’ve also had their hearts set on Union Station and the Skidmore Fountain building to house a PDX version of Seattle’s Pike Place Market ), they ought to explore why their efforts continue to fail. In food-obsessed Portland, a year-round market should have been an easy sell.

Back in the ’80s, Ron Paul and Amelia Hard, the market’s principal backers, helped sprout the city’s culinary movement. But PDX no longer resembles the place for which the original, 1993 Public Market proposal was penned. It called for a home for bakeries, coffee shops, wine merchants, and specialty-foods purveyors—amenities that Portland now has. In 1993, there was no New Seasons Market or Ken’s Artisan Bakery. And the Farmers Market was dinky.

Today, entrepreneurs have filled the niches that the city once lacked, while our Portland Farmers Market is lauded as one of the nation’s best. From nationally acclaimed restaurants to a thriving food-cart culture, Portland houses an impressive amount of foodie micro-enterprises.

That Portland needs a “kitchen and pantry” is Paul’s favorite one-liner, but PDX has plenty of them. What it doesn’t have is a landmark, year-round market and forum for food and food education. Safe to say that will only happen if a concerted effort is made to engage the public. A recent poll on the local foodie website Portlandfoodanddrink.com expressed overwhelming reader support for a year-round public market, but market backers have failed to harness this enthusiasm. In the days prior to the PDC hearing, public market backers didn’t even send out a press release to muster support for its 511 bid.

Vancouver, B.C.’s, Granville Island Public Market is a project Ron Paul often cites as an example for Portland. In 1979, it didn’t begin life housed in an iconic shell, but in a bunch of nondescript metal buildings that would transform an industrial wasteland into a showcase for gastronomy. PDX’s Central Eastside Industrial District could be our Granville Island. It’s where land is cheaper, urban renewal funds are available and Portland’s creative heart most strongly beats.

“The eastside wasn’t a viable location six years ago,” remembers veteran Portland chef David Machado. “Today it’s a viable location.”

Imagine taking a ferry—like in Vancouver, B.C.—across the Willamette River from Tom McCall Waterfront Park to the James Beard Public Market on the Eastside Waterfront: a collaborative effort of foodies like Paul and Hard plus the cadre of young chefs and artisans currently not part of the effort. It would be the right revitalizing project for the close-in east side and a link to the historic Produce Row in an industrial area where thousands already work.

“The river is no longer a barrier for people to engage with a public market,” says Brad Malsin, whose Beam Development is already busy reinventing portions of the inner east side.

Regardless of location, Ron Paul needs to take his message beyond bureaucrats and City Club debates. He needs to take to the streets, engaging the public. In addition to the sporadic (but necessary) fundraising galas, why not shut down traffic and plan a midnight market on the Burnside Bridge in the middle of July? Make us feel it, Ron!

Portlander James Beard famously said, “Food is our common ground.” So if we’re to honor his legacy with a showcase market, the effort ought to be our common ground as well.

Originally Published on

Find this story at www.wweek.com/editorial/3402/9988

[MarkDaMan]

I know there are Ron Paul friends on here so I'm trying not to be critical...but I'm not sure he is the right person to be pushing this market if he's been trying since the 80s. Sure, let him serve on a board, but I'd also like to see several local chefs step up and push this too. I'd also imagine the county or city has some space somewhere they could give for a cheap cost and start a smaller year round market while more permanent digs are located.

[alexjon]

They aren't trying to create a working market like Pike Place Market, they're trying to create a boutique Marie Antoinette-esque playground. A market shouldn't include the Saturday Market elements as an afterthought, it should be built AROUND the Saturday Market, like every other major market in the country.

Vancouver built one to this end, and cities like San Antonio and Flagstaff have had them for a while.

I think they should find the most accessible and trafficked place up for grabs and build it. There is no real need to have it on the waterfront except to be a tourist attraction-- so if there aren't options in the immediate area, start looking in other parts of town. The West End would be a great place. Or a nice market center at 10th and Alder. It's next to the culinary institute-- it would get tourist AND local use, for sure. Plop down an underground parking structure, ground level inner market, rooftop terraced market plaza. Something like that.

I don't know, I'm kinda frustrated at the speed and process here.