Pia Hansen: Downtown market gaining traction in Spokane

I bring to you here the latest installment in the ongoing saga of the Spokane Marketplace. The good news is there’s now a steering committee that meets on a regular basis. The group has reinstated the market’s old nonprofit status (which was on life support somewhere in the state’s bureaucracy) and is optimistically proceeding to firm up its organization and business plans, as well as searching for a location.

The other good news is that the city actually hatched a plan for a combination of a cultural interpretive center and year-round marketplace that would be located in Riverfront Park.

The best I can give you at this point is a rough outline of what city officials call a “conceptual proposal” for a marketplace area in the heart of downtown:

Visualize the general area that begins on Post Street at Spokane Falls Boulevard, crosses the river via a Post Street Bridge that would become pedestrian-only and continues north to Bridge Avenue – where it takes a sharp left and heads west toward Monroe Street, right up to the doorstep of Kendall Yards.

Within this area, the city would undertake the construction of a building that would house a marketplace on the ground floor and some leasable office space. Renting out the office space would cover some of the construction cost. Outdoors, there would be interpretive areas designated to local tribes, and various park and play areas.

“Conceptual” in bureaucrat-speak means that nothing is set in stone, that there’s no funding and that the large number of stakeholders in the project aren’t in agreement about how to proceed.

The Park Board obviously controls most of the land in question.

Land equals power, so I’m guessing it will be difficult to get the Park Board to hand over the deed, even if a new well-designed interpretive center and year-round marketplace would be a major update to the park most people associate with Spokane.

Yes, there’s Manito as well, but I’ve yet to be asked for directions to the rose garden when I encounter downtown visitors on break from their conventions and meetings.

Over the years, the Spokane Marketplace has faced two major issues: a lack of support from City Hall and a never-ending fight among growers, crafters and other market vendors about location, rules and regulations.

The result of the latter fight is the smaller farmers markets that have sprung up in our neighborhoods – nothing wrong with that; I’m a big fan of the market in my neighborhood.

The result of the city’s lackadaisical support is that many financial resources such as – dare I say this? – community development moneys, remain unattainable. It also means that the marketplace has had no one in a position of political power to lean on when it hit rough spots.

Here’s some free advice to City Council and mayoral candidates: A year-round marketplace is a cause free for the taking – so get on it. It could be a small business incubator and an economic development tool, and it would definitely be an attraction that would bring money-spending visitors to our fair city.

The Pike Place Market, for instance, is its own public development authority, something that has repeatedly saved the Seattle landmark from being pushed into the harbor by eager developers.

Another explosive question is, of course, who would manage an interpretive center/market combo like this one?

Perhaps it’s about time someone calls the Public Facilities District. I mean, why not?

The PFD gets things done, and it runs its facilities well.

Not to mention that the people who found a site for the new convention center, and lived to tell the story, should be able to broker a location for a year-round marketplace faster than you can say rhubarb.