City to boot Rpdocue Terminal out of Strip?

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by groar

so does this current plan include the market house idea that was talked about earlier? or are they actually making the produce terminal into more of a mall?

To my knowledge the final master plan hasn't been released yet, although it seems like there may be a draft plan somewhere (I'm not sure if it is online). But the preliminary materials suggested they were still looking at developing some sort of public market in the Produce Terminal, along the lines of Pike Place Market in Seattle and the Reading Terminal Market in Philly. So hopefully that is what will emerge in the final master plan.

Edit: Oh, and as far as I can tell, the only sources for the notion the plan is to turn the Produce Terminal into some sort of suburban-style strip mall are disgruntled wholesalers.

[groar]

there were some actual plans at some point to turn it into a strip mall. but they seem to have fallen by the wayside in favor of this market idea, thank god!

it seems like if the produce terminal turns into a public market, the wholesalers could continue to exist there, especially if they started retail operations in the market. from my perspective, that would totally rule, although they might not want to do that.

but as they stand, the plans to create a market only use a small part of the building. at this point i don't see how any, or many wholesalers would be displaced.

[BrianTH]

I think you may be referring to older plans Buncher had floated, and as I read this situation, part of the idea is that the URA and the City are taking control of the development of this area. Buncher will still have a role to play and a stake in the outcome, but the URA/City appear to have negotiated a right to determine the master-planning.

Anyway, the current plans for a public market in the Produce Terminal are indeed pretty modest, but I think they are also short-term and based on available space in the Produce Terminal as it stands. This current discussion is about a more sweeping, long-term transformation of that entire area, including the Produce Terminal. The reason it is all coming up now is that the wholesalers have leases through 2012, and the URA and the City aren't willing to guarantee those leases will be continued.

So I suspect we will see the modest public market to start for the next couple years. But at some point after that we may see a much bigger transformation, which hopefully will include a much bigger public market. Which I suppose will depend in part on how the small one does--I suspect it will be a hit, but we shall see.

[pman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

To my knowledge the final master plan hasn't been released yet, although it seems like there may be a draft plan somewhere (I'm not sure if it is online). But the preliminary materials suggested they were still looking at developing some sort of public market in the Produce Terminal, along the lines of Pike Place Market in Seattle and the Reading Terminal Market in Philly. So hopefully that is what will emerge in the final master plan.

I believe Pike Place and certainly Reading Terminal Market are in very different locations. The Strip is more akin to the 9th st market. Reading Terminal is downtown and pulls office workers, tourists, and locals alike. Pike Place is also a very short walk from downtown and it's shopping district. I suppose the Strip has the waterfront but I'd guess that reviving Market Sq with a market might be easier to do in the short run (obviously that won't happen with the current rehab well underway)..or adding a market the PPG courtyard. that's not to say it won't be successful, but I think it's a stretch to think it would be as successful as those. Even Lancaster's Central Market is downtown.

[BrianTH]

So the Convention Center is about equidistant between Market Square and the Produce Terminal, and part of the plan is to redevelop the area between there and the Convention Center to make it more continuous with Downtown. I gather they are also looking at running a trolley, which I think is a no-brainer. And in fact already some people Downtown go to the Strip for lunch and such, and if it was a nicer walk and there was a trolley, I think a lot more people would do so. And the same goes for visitors staying down.

All that said, I think the idea is more to capture the feel of those other places, not necessarily the scale.