Overview

Project for Public Spaces is pleased to award nine grants totaling over $1 million to help fund the development of public markets in low- and moderate-income communities around the country. This innovative grant program is being managed by PPS as part of our ongoing partnership with the Ford Foundation to promote the role of public markets as vehicles for social integration and upward mobility.

This effort began in 2002 with research conducted by PPS that demonstrated how markets provide both a low-cost entry point for new businesses and a focal point for bringing diverse groups of people together. Using these findings as a departure point, and with continued support from the Ford Foundation, PPS worked with a diverse group of community development experts and public market operators (informally known as the Public Markets Advisory Group) to develop a new paradigm and national funding program for public markets in low- and moderate-income communities. The program was developed in collaboration with the federal Office of Community Services (OCS), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which also awarded $1,000,000 in grants under its special public markets initiative.

Program Goals

The program sought out projects where the public market would serve a "shifting sands" community - i.e. one undergoing substantial changes in demographics or real estate values. Applicants were asked to address the creation of economically sustainable markets as well as broader community goals such as the establishment of active public spaces and the revitalization of adjacent communities. The OCS funding is designed to encourage rural and urban community development corporations (CDCs) to create projects providing employment and business development opportunities for low-income people. More than 110 proposals were received in response to both RfPs.

"I believe all of us involved with this new initiative - PPS, HHS/OCS and the Public Markets Advisory Group - are pleasantly surprised at the degree of interest by applicants for funding," said Miguel Garcia, Acting Deputy Director of the Community Resource Development Unit at the Ford Foundation. "Clearly, we have uncovered a ripe investing venue for both public and private funders."

Grantees

While all of the grantees are focusing on the development of local entrepreneurs - whether farmers, bakers, artists, or restaurateurs - and on the creation of vital public gathering spaces for their communities, their individual project goals range from: building urban and rural linkages through the creation of a local food system; revitalizing dying commercial strip centers; impacting the health of neighboring communities; and creating strong central markets around diverse ethnicities and income groups. Many of these themes were reflected in the overall applicant pool and the hope is that other markets will learn from the experiences of these initial grantees as they explore these issues.

Future Funding

PPS anticipates an additional Ford-funded grant cycle some time in the fall of 2005, but the program is still in development.

Planning Grants - $65,000 each

Grantees are undertaking planning activities for market projects that will address the program goals of sustainable market operations, vibrant public spaces, and neighborhood revitalization.

• ACEnet - Athens, OH East Side Public Market Planning Project
• The Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, or ACEnet, a nationally acclaimed entrepreneurship organization, is designing and planning an indoor public market centered on local products in a part of town dominated by big box chain stores. The East Side Public Market Planning Project is connecting nearby local residents with 15 partner organizations in the planning and development of the market. The market will build off the success of the hugely successful Athens Farmers Market, which has over a hundred vendors - about a quarter of whom have passed through ACEnet's business and entrepreneurship training program and utilized its shared-use kitchen. The new market will include local food vendors, artisans and craftspeople, collectible dealers, and tourism/recreation vendors - a combination that reflects Southeastern Ohio's unique local economy and can help create a vibrant and self-sustaining market. Four groups - led by ACEnet - will recruit and train low-income entrepreneurs and assist them in collaborative marketing efforts.
• Camden Area Health Education Center -Camden, NJ Camden Community Farmers Market
• Sponsor of the award-winning Community Farmers Market, the Camden Area Health Education Center (AHEC) is planning for an expanded and enhanced public market in Camden City's Central Business District. While a myriad of "big-project" bricks-and-mortar economic developments are underway in the city, a strong downtown public market will serve, to quote Camden AHEC staff, as "a vehicle to unite diverse communities and integrate the people in them, as well as to provide new jobs and business opportunities." The market will address pressing urban issues that both downtown residents and adjacent neighborhoods face, such as poor nutrition, social isolation, and limited access to health and social services. AHEC will expand the health screenings and provision of health and human service information and referrals that are the hallmark of their existing market, as well as provide various economic incentives to encourage individuals to pursue jobs and/or start their own businesses at the market. Other key features of the market will be local vendors providing fresh, affordable produce, baked goods and ethnic foods, and an exciting new local arts component through the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center. The result will be a place where people of all ages and cultural backgrounds will be able to meet, shop and have fun.
• Community Farm Alliance - Louisville, Kentucky Bridging the Divide: Growing Self-Sufficiency in West Louisville
• Though long a stalwart advocate for farmers and rural issues in Kentucky, Community Farm Alliance (CFA) has recently expanded their work to linking the state's rural and urban areas. A statewide membership organization dedicated to building a local food economy in Kentucky, CFA, along with the West Louisville Food Working Group, is planning for the development of a local food market with a value-added processing facility and distribution center, jointly owned and operated by farmers and inner city residents. The budding relationships growing around food in West Louisville through this partnership are not only improving access to fresh food, they are creating a new vision for economic growth based on community needs. Champions of West Louisville, an organization composed of African American leaders dedicated to economic development in West Louisville, two farmer led co-ops, and two new farmers markets where residents and farmers share governance of the market, are collaborating on the project. Together they will encourage something rare - mutually supportive economic relationships between urban and rural people in ten city neighborhoods cutting across racial and class divisions and promoting cooperation across neighborhood lines.

Program Implementation Grants - $200,000

Grantees are being funded by PPS primarily for the soft costs of implementing their market projects.

• Neighborhood Development Center - Minneapolis, MN Global Marketplace
• Building off the success of the renowned cooperative market Mercado Central six blocks to the east, Neighborhood Development Center (NDC), in partnership with the Latino Economic Development Center (LEDC) and the African Development Center (ADC), is developing the Global Marketplace, a 60,000 plus square-foot international marketplace on Lake Street in South Minneapolis. NDC was selected by the City of Minneapolis and Ryan Development to develop the Global Marketplace as the commercial anchor tenant for the mixed-use redevelopment of a massive former Sears building now called "Midtown Exchange." This innovative market will have the capacity for 64 permanent ethnic food, crafts and related small businesses in stalls and shops, lining nine aisles and situated around a sky-lit atrium. An outdoor farmers market and art fairs will be integral parts of the market experience, as will day tables and kiosks, cooking demonstrations, art exhibits, live music and other activities. NDC will support vendors through its business training and micro-loan programs, both of which they found to be instrumental in the success of Mercado Central and in creating a socially responsible business community. Due to open in mid-2006 the Global Marketplace will be a tremendous addition to South Minneapolis.

Program Implementation Grants with OCS Grant - $200,000 each

Grantees have also received funding from OCS, primarily for hard costs, and are being funded by PPS primarily for soft costs, of implementing their market projects.

• Valley Economic Development Center - Panorama City, CA Plaza del Valle
• Valley Economic Development Center (VEDC) is working to create new businesses and jobs in Plaza del Valle, a privately-owned shopping center with a unique ¾-mile-long plaza, for the primarily Latino residents of the Northeast San Fernando Valley. With the area's high unemployment and poverty rates, and lack of central gathering places, VEDC seeks to secure Plaza del Valle's role as an economic, social and cultural center for the community. Vendors looking open businesses in Plaza del Valle will be required to complete VEDC's businesses entrepreneurship training program, the goal being to increase the vendors' ability to start and run successful businesses - and ultimately become more upwardly mobile and economically self-sufficient. Planned activities for the market plaza include screening of outdoor movies and sports events, cultural festivals, and the area's first farmers market. This CA-certified farmers market is slated to open in the plaza this spring, thereby providing tens of thousands of qualifying Northeast Valley WIC participants access to fresh, local produce through the Farmers Market Nutrition Program.
• East Harlem Business Capital Corporation - New York, NY La Marqueta Internacional
• The La Marqueta Internacional development project proposes to totally restore "La Marqueta," a historic city-owned market that was once the heart of East Harlem's "El Barrio." A 55,000 square foot retail property located under the Metro North Viaduct along Park Avenue, La Marqueta has languished over the years despite several attempts to revitalize it. Though it is currently under the administrative jurisdiction of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, East Harlem Business Capital Corporation has recently received site designation and is now successfully pursuing financial partners to recreate La Marqueta into an enviable "International Public Market." In keeping with East Harlem's heritage as the Mecca for Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Latin American art, music, culture, and cuisine, this effort will create an entirely new fresh and prepared food and flower market with a distinctive Latin flavor. As vendors will be recruited and trained by EHBCC from around the neighborhood and city, and will be devoid of chain stores and fast food franchises, La Marqueta Internacional aims to be a truly local economic development and neighborhood revitalization project.
• Unity Council - Oakland, California Fruitvale Village Public Market
• The Unity Council is creating the Fruitvale Village Public Market - an indoor/outdoor marketplace - on De La Fuente Plaza, the main entrance to a light rail station and the heart of the newly constructed Fruitvale Village. The village is a mixed-use transit-oriented development that has been a critical component of the Fruitvale district's revitalization. Market vendors will have access to business assistance and loans though the recently formed Fruitvale/San Antonio Business Development Partnership and will sell a unique mix of fresh and prepared foods and crafts that cannot be found anywhere else in the Bay Area. The Unity Council is developing the market to be more than simply a shopping destination, though. Community activities such as fairs, performances on the plaza, craft-making demonstrations, education about healthy food, and a bi-weekly, evening farmers market will cement the linkage between the existing commercial district - a result of efforts of the Unity Council's Fruitvale Main Street Program - and Fruitvale Village, serving as a centralized hub of activity and meeting place for both community residents and visitors.

Advancement Grants - $30,000

Grantees are implementing innovative programs that fall outside the primary program objectives, but significantly advance their existing work.

• The Market Foundation - Seattle, WA Quest Acceptance Project
• In 1999 the plastic Quest Card replaced the paper Food Stamp, with the goal of simplifying the program for low-income recipients and food vendors alike. The change required vendors to install electronic card readers to participate in the program, a relatively simple act for traditional grocery stores, but a major challenge for local farmers selling seasonally without a fixed stall in a public market. The result limits the potential success of local farmers and also limits the fresh and healthy shopping options for thousands of low-income residents of downtown Seattle and its adjacent neighborhoods.
• The Quest Acceptance Project will once again allow federal food stamps recipients to shop in Seattle's renowned Pike Place Market. The project will install electronic Quest benefit card readers throughout the market, enabling the market's 104 farmers to sell produce to food stamp program participants. The Market Foundation plans to enlist 20 of the Market's farmers to be part of their first year pilot. The goal is to educate the Market's year-round food vendors about the Quest program and increase participation from 13 vendors of fish, meat, produce, bread and dairy to 24. The Foundation will also document their challenges and lessons learned to be able to share their experiences with other markets.
• Eastern Market Advancement Coalition - Detroit, MI Support for Urban Land Institute Panel
• In an effort to identify strategies for improving Eastern Market, a historic wholesale/ retail market district on the edge of downtown Detroit, the Eastern Market Advancement Coalition (EMAC) is sponsoring an Urban Land Institute (ULI) Advisory Panel. The panel will work to identify the best mix of development and job growth opportunities for the district, identify needed improvements for existing assets, and recommended new or expanded uses for vacant land in the district. One area the panel will focus on is how the market can more effectively be used as a catalyst for broader community development and revitalization - with a particular close look at creating economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income individuals that live near or may already work in the market. The result of this effort will be an implementation strategy that will allow Eastern Market to become one of the best wholesale/retail food centers in the region, in addition to being a great place to work, live, shop, and visit.