Permanent farm market proposed for Sonoma County Fairgrounds
By Jenna V. Loceff, Business Journal Staff Reporter
Concept scheme of the Sonoma MarketHall
SANTA ROSA — Members of the Sonoma County Fair board will hold a public meeting March 16 on plans to create a permanent public market year-round at the fairgrounds.
The 70,000-square-foot privately funded and developed facility, proposed for the corner of Bennett Valley and Brookwood roads, will be discussed at the 7 p.m. meeting at the Jockey Club. Input from neighbors and local interested parties is welcomed.
Mark Rivers, the developer, will be there to present the project and answer questions.
In a letter to the neighbors, Fair Manager Tawny Tesconi said the Sonoma MarketHall is expected to be a centerpiece of commerce and community in both planning and daily operations.
She said building will be completed using local labor and materials.
They expect to have more than 100 vendors creating 100 permanent jobs featuring wine, food and other products. The market was inspired by Pike’s Place Market in Seattle, Wash.
Each tenant will have stalls ranging from 200 to 2,000 square feet.
According to Mr. Rivers, the MarketHall will be open March 1 to Jan. 2 of each year, closing for the remainder of January and February. The market will be open six days a week, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed on Mondays, he said.
The anticipated opening date is April of 2011.
Ms. Tesconi said the fair board will be asked to review the project and to approve a directive to move forward at its board meeting on March 18.
Mr. Rivers, the chief executive officer of Brix, is a former adviser to Harrod’s Department Store in London on its Food Hall and consulted on the Port of Oakland’s Jack London Square, which would be the West Coast’s largest public market. He also has worked with the leadership of the Port of San Francisco, the home to the Ferry Building Marketplace.
Comparing this concept to Pike place is a bit naive! It is akin to putting Copia in the city of Napa instead of Yountville or St Helena. Pike Place is what it is because it is centrally located in a significant tourist destination. I just don’t see demand significant enough to make this economically viable. I do hope it works however, but I think the site is a poor choice as most of the tourists are speeding through Santa Rosa on their way to Healdsburg, Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley and the Sonoma Valley.
by Vineman
Great! Just what we need…another wine and food center to go broke. The Farmers’ Market is great the way it is. Do we have to let the winos take over everything? The Fair Board is desperate for money and headed in the wrong direction.
by gerry2280
I have been to the Pikes Peak Market in Seattle many times and this would be an awesome addition for Santa Rosa.
by glenn gotreaux
This is a GREAT idea…As a child in Philadelphia, magical moments came for me at the Reading Terminal farmer’s market with the Amish country farmers bringing their fresh produce and other goods unique to the area to the center-city establishment. What a fantastic place for our local farmers and merchants to sell their unique goods.
by ben aronoff
I’d like to see a “free trade” area in this market, where instead of permanent vendors people who produced food and other goods locally (read sonoma, marin, or lake counties) could just come and set up a booth anytime their goods were available. They would be exempt from all the usual obstacles to independent producers like producer’s certificates, health inspections, and the rest. it would be buyer beware, but people could actually then sell the things they produced and had extra available, _whenever_ they were actually available. maybe shoppers would have to sign a waiver to enter and there’d need to be some system to keep out scammers importing produce from the central valley, but if it could be pulled off, it might allow a lot of backyard, local production.
by feltonius
We already have the oldest and really great Farmers Market happening every Wednesday and Saturday at the Vets Building in Santa Rosa. Why do we need this? If it’s not broke, why fix it?
by Gene Gaffney
Why name it SONOMA MARKETHALL if it’s in Santa Rosa? Shouldn’t the Sonoma Markethall be in Sonoma? Whoever came up with that name is not from any where around here. Sonoma County Markethall or Santa Rosa MarketHall would seem like a better name.
by Dale Eckebrecht
Really great idea.
by hector
The developer for this is not a local resident. He is from Boise.
70,000-square-feet is a lot of room to fill. In this economy I don’t see it happening. We already have the farmers market at the vets, the down town market in the summer, and also the redwood square project, why do we need another. There is only so much pie to go around.
Plus parking at the fair during events is already horrible and over flows into neighborhoods. Now you’re going to take up needed parking spots to create a new building, that will just sit there if this doesn’t take off like planned. Could you image what it will be like with the Health & Harmony fair and this marketplace happening at the same time? Or how about during the 4th of July events?
Why not just purchase a building that already exists (like the AT&T building or the skyhawk market that just closed) and remodel it. Or another building that has been sitting for years with no tenets and is centrally located?
by Sonoma Local
Wasn’t this the same idea originally proposed for the area between Railroad Square and the old cannery buildings? At least that area is closer to freeway access which would garner more customers. And with the future SMART trains, even more exposure would be available to suppoprt business there.
by Nancy