Public market proposed at Fairgrounds

A private developer is proposing a $10 million public market featuring local produce and prepared foods on land owned by the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

The Sonoma MarketHall, the subject of public meetings next week, is the second project that seeks to create a center in Santa Rosa to sell farm bounty, artisan products and other items dear to food enthusiasts.

The other proposed public market is slated for Railroad Square and would be connected to a nonprofit food and wine center and a mixed-use development. Developers for both projects said they would like to break ground next year.

Can Santa Rosa support two public markets?

"I don't think two would fly," John Mackie, the board chairman for the nonprofit Sonoma County Food and Wine Center, said Monday. For the past eight years, the group has been trying to support a food center and public market, and has worked with the developers of the Railroad Square project.

"People question whether it's viable to have one," said Mackie, who wants to learn more about the fairgrounds project. His group thinks a permanent market can succeed in Santa Rosa. But he emphasized that getting large numbers of consumers to regularly shop there would amount to "a huge change in people's buying habits."

The public will have the chance to learn more about the MarketHall project at 7 p.m. March 16 at the fairgrounds Jockey Club. The fair board is scheduled to take up the issue March 18.

The MarketHall would be located near the southeast corner of Brookwood Avenue and Bennett Valley Road. The land, now part of an immense parking lot, would be leased from the fair.

If the project is to succeed, it eventually would require approval of the county Board of Supervisors, said Ross Liscum, fair board vice president and chairman of the buildings and grounds committee.

"What I like about it is it promotes economic development and it supports our local ag community," Liscum said. The project would provide the fair with an added source of revenue, he said.

The MarketHall would feature nearly 70,000 square feet of space, about 140 vendors and more than 100 permanent jobs.

In contrast, the public market proposed for Railroad Square would be somewhere around 25,000 to 30,000 square feet. That project would have a total of nearly 90,000 square feet of commercial space and 279 housing units, said John Stewart, one of the project's partners.

The MarketHall developer, Mark Rivers, previously completed a $60 million redevelopment project in 2005 in Boise, Idaho and has worked with Harrod's Department Store in London on its food hall.

Rivers, with offices in Boise and San Francisco, said he doesn't need outside financing for the MarketHall because he has a group of investors who are willing to back the project.

"This has to be a truly diverse, large-scale offering for it to capture the imagination of the public," Rivers said.

The customer base would include both North Bay residents and those from outside the region, Rivers said. But "it is intended to be a celebration of Sonoma County, and the group that would most naturally celebrate that are Sonoma County residents."

Developers for the two public market projects Monday professed to know little about the other's project. Both groups said they will proceed regardless of the other's plans. Both said they intend to succeed where others have faltered.

The experience of public markets "is checkered," said Stewart, whose office is in San Francisco. "Pike Place (Market in Seattle) is successful and the Ferry Building (in San Francisco) is successful, but a lot of them are not."

Lex McCorvey, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, said the projects point to "an era of renewed commitment to local agriculture and local food." The farm bureau is willing to support both market projects.

"The more the merrier," McCorvey said.