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CITY COUNCIL
RELEASES DETAILED REPORT ON PUBLIC MARKET FOR LOWER
MANHATTAN
Report produced in conjunction
with non-profit planning group
City Hall - City Council Speaker Gifford
Miller joined Council Members Alan J. Gerson, James
Sanders, Jr. and Domenic M. Recchia, Jr. in unveiling
a comprehensive look at the need for a major public
market on the former site of the World Trade Center.
The study was compiled with the assistance of Project
for Public Spaces and the Public Market Collaborative,
nonprofit groups dedicated to creating parks, plazas
and central squares to foster community development.
The study calls for a 42,000 square
foot market hall, in a similar style to Washington
Market, which stood at the WTC site for nearly 150
years before the Trade Center was built. After analyzing
several other public markets around the word, the
plan predicts that New York City's could generate
at least $15 million in annual sales, while estimated
operating costs would run $985,000. The revenue potential
could rise dramatically after new development of the
site is complete and the number of tourists, downtown
residents and workers increases.
"A public market would help reinvigorate
downtown and would create a vibrant public space and
needed amenity for downtown residents and office-workers.
In addition, a public market would attract shoppers
to the downtown area and create thousands of local
jobs," commented Speaker Miller.
The City Council originally proposed
the inclusion of a grand public market over the summer,
when it released its report "Building a Better
New York" for rebuilding Lower Manhattan. Today's
recommendations where submitted to the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation (LMDC) for consideration into
the final plan.
""My constituents have had
very little in the way of fresh produce since September
11th, and there were very few supermarkets before
that," said Lower Manhattan Council Member Alan
Gerson. "A large-scale public market would inject
new life downtown and would mean as much to New York
as Pike Place Market does to Seattle."
(over)
Council Member Recchia, who chair's
the Subcommittee on Small Business, Retail and Emerging
Technologies added, "A market like this would
add thousands of jobs to our workforce. Moreover,
it would give the farmer's market retailers who've
been scattered all over the City since September 11th
a new, centrally-located setting to restart their
businesses."
The report lays out four types of suggestions
for what the market could look like.
- Option #1 offers an 'Open-Air Market'
similar to the Paris Outdoor Fruit Market or the
Greenmarkets, located in Union Square and Grand
Army Plaza.
- Option #2 explores the possibility
of a 'Market Shed' in the same vein as the 80-acre
Eastern Market Shed in Detroit, Michigan.
- Option #3 discusses the idea of
a 'Market Hall', which is a more advanced form of
a Market Shed because of the ability to keep a controlled
temperature all year round. The Reading Terminal
Market in Philadelphia is used as a prime example
of a successful, self-sustaining Market Hall.
The final option, and one that might
make the most sense for a city of New York's size
and stature is a 'Market District'. A Market District
encompasses the first three options and traditionally
contains a communal plaza where shoppers, tourists
and local employees congregate. Pike Place Market
in Seattle, Washington is cited as a prime example
of a world-renowned shopping center that Lower Manhattan
could feasibly support.
"It's clear that public markets,
when done right, can provide new life to a city's
vitality. It's going to take more than just new buildings
or new transportation to revitalize Lower Manhattan.
The area will need to offer something that you can't
find anywhere else in the City, and a spectacular
public market would fit the bill," concluded
Speaker Miller. "We have an unprecedented opportunity
to combine the most successful elements of public
markets around the world into the kind of complex
that only New York City could achieve."
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