Boise explores creating an indoor public market

WOULD THIS BE BOISE’S PIKE PLACE MARKET?

“I would not use Pike Place as an analogy too much, in the sense that Pike Place is 100 years old, it’s very much a feature of its location and has its own history,” said Ted Spitzer, the farmers market developer hired by Boise to do a feasibility study. “There’s a lot to learn from Pike Place ... but it’s not necessarily the model we’re trying to emulate.”

Almost every city in the U.S. had a public market at some point in its history, Spitzer said. The Philadelphia area is probably the nation’s farmers-market hot spot, he said. That’s in part because Pennsylvania Dutch/Amish communities help keep the markets alive.

Milwaukee’s market — which Spitzer’s company helped create — is an example of new public markets. Built in 2005, the Milwaukee market is a permanent home for 25 vendors.

WHERE MIGHT THIS MARKET BE LOCATED?

That’s still way in the future — after the feasibility study is done. But Karen Ellis, executive director of the Capital City Public Market, has checked out a few places, including:

- The “hole” at 8th and Main streets, where Zions Bank recently announced plans to build its Idaho headquarters.

- The surface parking lot between the U.S. Bank building and Brick Oven Bistro, at Main Street and South Capitol Boulevard.

- The former Macy’s building on Idaho Street between 8th and 9th streets. With 4,000 square feet available, it might be too small, Ellis said.

With an early boost from the mayor’s office, Downtown Boise could get a new indoor, year-round public market. The woman behind the idea likens it to Seattle’s iconic Pike Place Market.

The market is the vision of Karen Ellis, executive director of the nonprofit Capital City Public Market, which has more than 150 vendors.

“The dream has been there since the day I started the market” in 1994, Ellis said. “Market buildings are springing up everywhere.”

Ellis said her “pie in the sky” vision is a Downtown market with “everything anybody would need.” The city recently hired a consultant from Maine to research whether Boise could support it.

Ellis envisions a 20,000- to 40,000-square-foot space, open six or seven days a week, with:

- A gourmet shop with wines, meats and dairy.

- Cold storage and dry storage, where vendors could keep meat, dairy and other perishables. At this point, vendors can’t sell more on Saturday than they can carry and keep cold.

- A local brewery with a pub.

- A gluten-free area.

- A commercial kitchen and a bakery with a grinding mill.

- A butcher shop and demonstration kitchen.

- A collection and delivery point that could be used by community-supported agriculture, or CSA, networks.

- A “food education hub,” for food-preserving classes and the like.

At a minimum, she wants to create an indoor gourmet market open Friday through Sunday, paired with a production and storage facility.

“The main thing for us is a building to go into in the wintertime ... when everybody is standing outside freezing,” Ellis said.

Taking note of Ellis’s ambitions for the project, Mayor Dave Bieter’s economic development team approached her earlier this year.

“This is something we feel could be a huge benefit to the city, but (we asked), have you really looked at the feasibility (and) the numbers?” said Cece Gassner, Bieter’s economic development aide. “We wanted to make sure they had ... the research completed just to answer the question: Is there enough supply and demand for a year-round market?”

If research points to yes, the market could get a spot in the city’s master plan to guide zoning and urban planning for a market site.

Boise ponied up $24,500 of economic development funds and hired Ted Spitzer of Maine-based Market Ventures Inc. to conduct the feasibility study.

Vendors who sell every Saturday at the Downtown market said they’d consider selling in the year-round space, too.

They have some questions, such as whether they’d have to be present all day, every day — a daunting requirement for any rancher, farmer or winemaker who lives hours from Boise.

Stacie Ballard, who co-owns Ballard Family Dairy & Cheese with her husband and son, makes the trek from Gooding each weekend. She likes to meet customers and give them a free taste of all the dairy’s cheese varieties. But her dairy is 100 miles away.

Kimi Kelley, who owns Kelley Orchards in Weiser with her husband, said they couldn’t staff a booth every day. But she’d be fine with someone else doing that.

One of the market’s meat vendors is gung-ho on the idea. “It would be beneficial to me if I did have a storefront on a daily basis,” said Greg Morrison, owner of M&N Cattle in Hagerman.

Morrison likes the idea of a Pike Place-esque market with an on-site butcher. That way, customers could buy any beef cuts they want. He can’t do that at the Saturday market.

Indoor markets “are not easy things to do,” Spitzer said. “There have been some failures ... around the country.”

What can ruin a market? Picking the wrong location or the wrong building; having it run by a nonprofit that lacks business-mindedness, money and resources; too few good vendors; and, of course, parking.

Around year-end, Spitzer said he will know:

- What Boise market shoppers and vendors want.

- Who’s the competition? That’s a giant question, with the Boise Co-op nearby and Whole Foods on the way. The Co-op and Whole Foods did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

- Shopper demographics, like age, gender, location and income.

- What’s happening with local agriculture.

Money for the next phases — finding a home for the market, getting it financed, then building it — probably won’t come from city coffers.

Ellis said the nonprofit Saturday market could partner with a nonprofit like the Idaho Center for Sustainable Agriculture, or seek a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Nobody is making bets on how much money a new market would generate for the local economy. But Ellis said the open-air market’s annual economic impact is $4.8 million — from just a half-day a week, eight months a year.

Audrey Dutton: 377-6448