PORTLAND, Ore. — The longstanding vision of opening a public marketplace in Portland akin to Seattle's Pike Place Market is once again gaining new life, revitalized by Monday's announcement that the James Beard Public Market Foundation has secured a home for its namesake public market.
The nonprofit foundation behind the market said it will occupy 38,000 square feet of space in two buildings along Southwest 6th Avenue near Southwest Alder Street, creating a year-round, seven day a week public market in downtown Portland. It will include the Selling Building but will cover a third of a city block in all.
"We are a culinary capital of the world," said Jessica Elkan, executive director of the James Beard Public Market. "We grow, produce, make, fish and do so many things across this state and it's time to highlight that and bring it all under one roof under the James Beard Public Market."
The James Beard Public Marketplace will feature up to 40 vendors selling Oregon-made food and agricultural products, a teaching kitchen, event space, bakery, fish market, butcher shop, cheese shop, wine merchant and a bookstore that specializes in cookbooks. It will also create around 200 jobs.
The marketplace is named after the culinary icon, born in Portland in 1903. Beard tried his hand at acting in Hollywood, but that career never took off and instead he pursued a career in cooking after starting a catering company in 1939 in New York, according to OPB in a timeline of his life.
"We hope this becomes a place that people gather and a community space that really brings Portlanders together in an iconic destination in the heart of our city," Elkan said.
The idea of the public market has been around for some time. It first started 26 years ago, in 1998, with Ron Paul, a Portland chef and restauranteur who championed the idea for more than a decade. Paul passed away in 2015, but his vision lived on.
"Ron Paul put in years and years of work to build this before he passed away," Oregon's U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said in his remarks during Monday's announcement. "I think if he was here today, he would say we're here to celebrate a showcase for Portland's future."
In the years since Paul's dreams of the James Beard Public Market started, there have been state funds allocated to the project, renderings and properties that could make for a potential site. Previous spots near OMSI or the Morrison Street Bridge were imagined, but never materialized into anything.
"I think what makes this different than other attempts is true public-private partnership," Elkan said. "I also think we're in a time right now in Portland when we need to reimagine, we need to revitalize and we need to really highlight what we do best and that is the culinary arts."
Elkan said one thing that will set the James Beard Public Market apart from Seattle's Pike Place Market is that it won't be selling crafts, so they won't compete for business with the Portland Saturday Market, "this will be only food and food-related items in this market."
Some of the vendors will be well-established names, while others are just getting their name out there to the general public. Elkan hopes this will help launch several business ventures for the vendors starting small and one day opening their own brick and mortar stores.
She said rent will be competitively priced, "You can't just go out and buy a building and pass along those costs on to your vendors. The whole idea of a public market is making sure that your rents are affordable for your potential vendors."
The market is hoping for a late 2025 partial opening, with a full opening in 2026. They hope to begin construction in January 2025.