But with that age and history come issues of deterioration, turnover and vacancies, both inside the main terminal and outside in the attached produce arcade. Nowhere are the problems more apparent than in the north-south leg of the produce annex, where the bulk of the stands are bare.
Recently, entrepreneur Alan Glazen has begun floating a transformational plan for the portion of the produce arcade that connects to Lorain. The nonprofit concept, which is being developed in partnership with the Cleveland Culinary Launch Kitchen, is dubbed the Makers & Farmers Hall at West Side Market.
With the stated goal of reinventing the shopping experience, the plan calls for converting “the least rented, least visited, least productive part of the iconic West Side Market into a must-visit, vibrant hall where visitors can shop for Cleveland-made food products, locally raised and grown meats and produce, with ample opportunity for sampling, socializing and learning while roaming, relaxing, having a sandwich and completely upgrading the experience of visiting the West Side Market.”
To better compete with area grocers such as Heinen’s and Whole Foods, which have begun offering farmer’s market-like experiences built around prime produce and local foods, the Makers & Farmers Hall will help transform the practice of visiting the West Side Market from an act of tourism to one of shopping and socializing.
The initiative calls for replacing the linear, raised stands with “kiosks, floating displays, product sampling stations, roving sales/advisory staff, flexible presentations spaces, convenient community seating, access to the outdoors, and opportunities for special events, education and entertainment.”
In terms of content, “the focus will be on food products made and manufactured in the region, from pickles and sauerkraut to sauces, salsas, snacks and more – and a farmer’s market selection of diverse, specialty and locally grown, raised and produced products all meeting a high level of quality, whether entirely organic or grown and raised by similar artisan standards.”
For now, this is simply a proposal, explains Glazen, who recently submitted the plans and architectural drawings to City Hall, which operates the market. Additional copies of the plan were submitted to local stakeholders like Ohio City Inc., the local councilman, and the West Side Market Tenant Association.
Don Whitaker of Whitaker Meats, president of the Market Tenant Association, only recently received a copy of that plan. And while he’s eager to evaluate any initiative for change and improvement, he’s not ready to comment on this specific plan.
“We have a board meeting next week and maybe by then we can get some more details in time to put this on our agenda for discussion,” Whitaker states. “As a board, we have to get some more details so as to protect the interest of our current membership.”
Local business owner and Ohio City resident Sam McNulty has seen the plan and agrees that the time for progressive thinking is now.
“I think it’s time for West Side Market 2.0,” says McNulty, co-founder of Market Garden Brewery. “In order for the market to meet its full potential, we need the mayor to hand over the management to an entrepreneurial group that has experience running a public market. Then visionary entrepreneurs like the Alan Glazens of the world will flock to the market and breathe new life into all the many vacant stalls, and in the process will uplift the existing businesses and all the hard-working vendors that are the backbone of the market.”
We’ll continue to follow this story if and as it develops.
This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2019.
Since City Hall is involved, it will no doubt include another hefty tax for us customers to pay!!!
Until Taxin Jackson is recalled from office, nothing will ever change in this high-taxed and corrupt city!!!
While were at it, Budish needs to be recalled from office now too!!! Until both of these thieves are finally in jail for their non-stop waste of taxpayer money and corruption, we cannot expect anything to ever change around here!!!
The article actually reads like an unedited press release.
So, a bunch of rich/ semi-rich people are interviewed but no one that actually sells produce in the market or works for the market is interviewed?
And who is McNulty to comment about the Market? He sells over priced beer.
This is what happens when you are buddies with trattner- Glazen: you get your unedited, one-sided pitch published in Scene masquerading as a news article; Mcnulty: you get your two cents published for good measure.
Thanks Doug!! Buy you a beer this weekend!
The market worked for 106 years. Why is there a problem now? That market fed the middle class neighborhood with good affordable fruit and vegetables. But now it seems cleveland is more interested in making our market into an upscale overpriced destination for the people that visit the market once a month. I agree the market could use a facelift in the produce area but that is all… a facelift ! People love to step back in time and remember the good old days. If the produce area is upscale and the meat and fish areas are the way they have been for years and years it simply doesnt fit.
Again , it worked for 106 years and now theres a problem. Im calling bull@$#& !
It ain’t broke…so why fix it? So that developers and entremaneur resturant owners can yuppify and Brookynize and Millenialize one of Cleveland’s unique jewels…and make a killing in the process.
Oh, but wait…it will be VIBRANT and SOCIAL, and be crammed with ROAMERS and RELAXERS and it will UPGRADE YOUR SHOPPING EXPERIENCE…whether you like it or not.
Plus education and entertainment. A vertible Disneyland of Food.
When somebody wants to “upgrade my (whatever) experience”…I want to run like hell the other way…and tell them where to stick their upgrade and its effect on my experience.
Why do these people want to de-Cleveland what makes Cleveland…well…CLEVELAND? Other than to make a buck in the process? Nobody else has a place like this…not one other large city…
And yet, the ABC-XYZ-Uptown upgraders and experience enhancers want to turn the Market into a cookie-cutter upscale food court and a farmer’s market and another developer-designed foodie mall.
Facelift and fixing what is leaking and crumbling and broken, yes…destroying it in order to save it…HELL, NO.
Cleveland is being transformed from both ends…it’s crumbling and becoming poorer and more blighted and slummy, but at the same time, the money-grubbers and the power-brokers and the developers are remaking large parts of it in their own image…mostly a suburbanized well-heeled affluent one that very few need, and neither want nor like.
Enjoy what still remains of what makes Cleveland a unique and special and distinctive place, because the money-changers and the upgraders and the experience-enhancers are soon going to erase nearly all of it and make it a commonplace and interchangeable place that not only looks like everywhere else, but one that will cost you a bundle to “experience.” That’s why it’s called an “upgrade”…the cost to upgrade your experience always means you will be spending more money to experience less, in a packaged, sanitized, manufactured environment.
Bottom line: I’m not calling the so-called problem bullshit, Mr. Chambers…I’m calling these plans bullshit!
From what is described, it sounds like they take the short part of the produce L, move the vendors to the empty spots in the long hallway, and put some picnic tables in the short part.
Why would that cost $500k, and who would be getting paid for that.? Typical Cleveland where the low IQ politicians are manipulated so easily by slick developers that profit.
The Market did fine for 100 years. Jackson and his band of nincompoops is taking it apart slowly by neglect and corruption.
Why not let the north union farmers market, who clearly has access to the food and produce people want, manage the area? At least the offerings would check the yuppie boxes for local, sustainable, etc. While separating it from comparison to the usual grocery store.
It is a place to buy food, not a place to buy prepared food / food court. The ethnics of long ago cooked. Now our current crop of ethnics go to rallys.
You mean Rally’s as in the hamburger joint? Or “rallies” as in protests? One is funny, the other is not.
This article should read:
“And now, another quote from longtime Ohio City resident, and my best friend even though I never disclose this when writing about his businesses and/or business interests, Sam McNulty”
Rallys as is fast food joint.
95% of all responses have been positive and supportive because they think before they post. They understand that this is a proposal-in-progress, and that the next huge step is LISTENING. For the edification of those quick-tempered geniuses, no one is asking for a cent to make this happen. And no one will make a cent for making it happen. And the people behind this, like me, are lifelong inner city Clevelanders—-I live 3 miles from where I was born on Eddy Road. My goal is one thing abd one thing only: preserve and celebrate the greatness of Cleveland. If you come to the table with nothing but half-informed negativity, you are the biggest obstacle to progress. Any fool can be negative. Thank goodness, hundreds and hundreds of us intend on progressing with the conversation and doing great things for our city without trying to make money for themselves. Who would try to stomp us down???
oh boo hoo @alan.
part of living in a society means everyone has a right to voice their opinion and not everyone is going to agree with you. and disagreeing with you doesn’t mean that one is an “obstacle to progress.” it may just mean that they think another avenue toward progress is better than the one you are promoting. it’s arrogant, rich, entitled people like you who have the nerve to believe that anyone who doesn’t agree with your God-given directives for how the city should operate are wrong/bad/misinformed/regressive/etc… it’s really an obnoxious position and probably a big part of the reason so many people came out to slander your idea here.
We’re both old enough to remember Vietnam all too well, Alan…
One of the most memorable quotes from Vietnam was:”We had to destroy the city in order to save it.”
When I hear about your plans and see your horn-tooting posts, I immediately think of that statement.
And another line from that era also comes to mind. Guy named Dylan…
“Money doesn’t talk…it swears.” And the folks here are swearing back at you. Deal with it, Alan.
Lifelong Clevelander, eh? Than you should know better than most that arrogance, attitude, and pretension don’t fly in this town. They crash and burn. And if you really think that anyone is going to buy your “no one will make a cent for making this happen” baloney, I have an idea for a bridge to Rondeau that you might want to take a look at…including a man-made island with an upscale food court on it. Interested?
The Pike Place Market is doing very well in Seattle and it has much more than food. That could be the solution for the half-empty produce section. Upgrade, make it warmer and nicer and have booths, keep a smaller section for produce but add a section that sells other merchandise. Take a look: http://pikeplacemarket.org/explore-the-mar…
Been there…and it’s way cooler than the West Side Market because it has other merch. There’s also a similar one in Philly that has the same kind of variety. Sounds like an excellent plan.