Food for Thought Market Series: Milwaukee, WI

October 14, 2009

Bellevue’s Thursday Farmers Market will close down for the season this week, and that got me thinking:  wouldn’t it be great if the market put down permanent roots?  Founded at the First Presbyterian church parking lot and held there for four years, the market moved this year to the old Safeway parking lot, prime Bellevue real estate at the corner of NE 4^th and Bellevue Way; they also added a Saturday market, which runs through November 21, 2010.  Traffic at the Thursday market has been a bit lower this year; there’s no doubt the economy has negatively impacted buying habits.  But thinking past the recession, if we had a permanent location for the Bellevue Farmers Market, where should it be?  Should it stand alone or should it anchor part of a larger public market?

In my travels to other cities, I always find my way to their markets; thus, I’ve collected quite a few examples – good and bad.  In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be sharing those experiences, photos, lessons learned and hard-knocks advice from market managers I’ve met in cities across the country.   Let’s start with Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Public Market:  Great Taste is Always in Season

The Milwaukee Public Market is owned and managed by a business improvement district located within that city’s Historic Third Ward District.  Over an 8-year period, a group of civic leaders and area businesspeople raised $10 million (evenly split between private donations and public grants from federal, state and local levels), and put together a concept that produced a 28,000 square-foot building at the edge of the Third Ward, just a block from the Milwaukee River.  This attractive building has a simple shed-roof design, with an open plan of perimeter and center-aisle spaces, as well as a mezzanine level with a gathering area, demonstration kitchen and market offices.  Clerestory windows and window walls provide plenty of natural daylight, and even at night, the space glows.  Looking down from the mezzanine, the space is a rich, vibrant stew of sights, smells and sounds.  Current tenants include a thriving and diverse mix of specialty food purveyors:

• Wine Thief (wine merchant and wine bar)
• Cedarsburg Coffee Roastery (one of 14 Milwaukee roasters; they roast here!)
• The Spice House (one of two locations of this famous Milwaukee landmark)
• St. Paul Fish Company
• West Allis Cheese & Sausage Shoppe
• Two bakeries, candy maker, florist, soup/salad kitchen, and bulk foods
• Several ethnic restaurants (Greek, Middle Eastern, Indian, Mexican, Japanese)

They hold an “urban market,” featuring vegetables and farm products from local producers, hand-crafted food products, and arts/crafts on Saturdays in the summer.  In addition, the Market produces community events, including a harvest festival, live music, and gardening and cooking classes for area youth.  The building is debt-free and financially stable; it is responsible for nearly 500 direct and indirect jobs, generates over $8.5 million per year in gross sales, and has become a thriving destination within a destination.  A stop along the circuit for the conference I attended, it was a highlight for everyone in our group – we were thrilled by the offerings and gracious hospitality of the market and all of their tenants.

But it wasn’t easy getting to this point.  After an 8-year battle to get it built they very quickly found themselves in financial peril.  As it turned out, consumers approached the public market like a grocery store, with the expectation to source the same ingredients year-round, and not like a farmers market, where you source a more limited choice of products in season.  So, it simply didn’t work there to bring ingredients to the market and tell buyers, “This is what you want to buy.”  Not if the providers were going to pay market rents, and not with competition from grocery chains with extensive selections of top-quality produce. 

After 18 months, the BID and the Historic Third Ward Association were forced to take over active management of the market to avoid financial collapse.  Job one was to re-calibrate the tenant mix.  A few vendors were retained; others were allowed out of their leases and replaced by vendors who could succeed.  Over time, the farmers have been re-introduced to the mix, in the weekly sidewalk market during the summer months.

But even with market rents, the building subsidizes CAM (Common Area Maintenance) charges out of rent revenues.  On top of that, there is no outstanding debt.  It’s run by a non-profit.  And daily oversight is by the chairman of the business improvement district who has extensive hospitality and retail experience, and who draws no salary.  So it takes a lot of favorables for this market to succeed.

How relatable to Bellevue is Milwaukee’s experience?  What can we learn?  First of all, the economics of a deal like this are challenging.  At the very least, free land is needed going into the deal, and debt is an extra burden.   When asked if they had it to do over again, what they would do differently, Ron San Felippo, the Chair of the BID and market supervisor, offered this wisdom:

1.   Design an efficient building – of the 28,000 square feet in this beautiful building, only about half is leasable.  Balance exciting design with practicality.  Make sure the gathering spaces are designed for meetings and events to supplement income.

2.   Accept that farmers cannot sustain the retail spaces – it’s the retailers who sustain the space for farmers.  Farmers are a valuable enhancement of a permanent, specialty food retail enterprise, but with all the markets out there, at most they can only be on-site one or two times a week.

3.   Understand your customer and sell what they want to buy!

4.   Understand what it is you’re ‘selling‘ to the community – economic development, jobs, a sense of place – and how this differs from profit making enterprises in your city.  You should complement – not openly compete with – the restaurants, stores and specialty retailers in your area.

So there you have it.  One city’s rocky road to a solid, stable and beloved community jewel.  Should Bellevue try to build such a market?  Do you see Bellevue in these pictures?  We welcome your comments.

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