Marketplace Still Looking For A Home Old Greyhound Terminal Among Those Under Consideration

Board members of the Marketplace, Spokane’s popular open-air street market, still are searching for a new home less than three months before its planned reopening.

The Marketplace has been evicted from its Riverside and Division location, and board members are “scrambling to find a place” that can accommodate more than 100 vendors, said Jackie Rappe, Marketplace director.

“We’ve looked at a number of places,” she said.

“Some places are too far; some we just can’t afford. Our hope was that something would’ve worked out (at the old site), but it didn’t.”

The search for a new site began last July, when the outdoor street market was notified it had to leave its location of the past four years.

One site under consideration is the former Greyhound bus depot, W1125 Sprague, said Tom Culbertson, board chairman. Five other sites also are being considered.

The market is scheduled to open May 7.

“One attractive quality about the old bus depot is that it’s within walking distance from many downtown residences,” said Culbertson.

Cowles Publishing Co., publisher of The Spokesman-Review and owner of property adjacent to the bus depot, is buying the building.

The market enjoyed a $10-a-year lease for the property at Division and Riverside, but it must vacate because the state no longer legally can offer rent at below-market rates.

The former site was purchased by the state for eventual development of a branch college campus.

Fair-market rental value for the site is estimated at $70,000 a year due to the heavy volume of traffic in the vicinity.

Money has been the biggest obstacle to locating a new site, according to Culbertson.

“We need a landlord who can grow with us until we can afford to pay fair-market price,” he said.

“We anticipate that as the Marketplace grows to be like Pike Place Market (in Seattle), we would be able to pay that price.”

When the market opened four years ago, it operated one day a week for three months during the year.

Culbertson said he hopes the market eventually will be open year-round at a site with both indoor and outdoor facilities.

Officials of the Joint Center for Higher Education notified the street market last week that the lease on the current site will expire March 1.

“This gives the Marketplace plenty of time to make a final decision and set up for their opening in the spring,” said Terry Novak, acting director of the joint center.

Other parties have indicated their interest in leasing the property, according to Novak, who declined to identify possible tenants.

He and other joint center staff members have volunteered to help Marketplace members vacate the area as well as coordinate with police the removal of transients who have moved onto the site.

Property managers R.W. Robideaux and Co. will arrange to fix leaks in the roof of the building.

In the meantime, Marketplace board members still are looking.

“We’ll find a place before we open. We have to,” said Rappe.

“We can’t let the vendors down. These people have given their heart and soul to the market and to the Spokane community.”

The Marketplace has about 75 core vendors, according to Rappe.

An estimated 300,000 people visited the Marketplace from May through October 1994.