kitchener-lrt
Mar 1, 2008, 3:46 PM
Weighing the future of Kitchener's market
PETER LEE, RECORD STAFF 1
PETER LEE, RECORD STAFF
PETER LEE, RECORD STAFF
TERRY PENDER
RECORD STAFF
KITCHENER
Bharti Vibhakar rises before the sun every Saturday morning, drives downtown from her suburban home and unloads boxes to set up her popular stall in Your Kitchener Market.
Vibhakar is a market fixture, selling samosas, frozen Indian dishes and a variety of spices, chutney and other South-Asian foods.
She can be heard chatting with customers, exchanging news about family and friends.
But beneath the friendly banter, the veteran entrepreneur is seething.
The way Vibhakar sees it, the farmers' market has had problems since it opened in its current location in May 2004.
Nobody has taken responsibility for the problems at this cherished institution, she says.
Nobody has come up solutions.
"They went and created something worse after spending all this money," Vibhakar said of decision-makers at Kitchener City Hall.
The city spent about $22 million to buy up the land and businesses in the block bordered by King, Cedar, Duke and Eby streets, then build the market.
Saturday markets started in this location in May 2004.
After five years, it was supposed to self-sufficient.
Instead, the annual subsidy for Your Kitchener Market has steadily increased to $784,000 a year.
That's up nearly $300,000 from the days when the market did business in the parking garage of a nearby mall.
But on Monday city councillors are scheduled to debate the future of the market. Their decisions will have big impacts on vendors, shoppers, the neighbourhood around the market and taxpayers.
In September 2004, a full-time market opened on the second floor of the new location. Within months, all of the vendors had pulled out, citing slow sales.
Owners of the ethnic kitchens on the other half of the second floor have struggled ever since. In a bid to help, the city has waived most of their fees.
Only one full-time vendor remains on the second floor -- the Eby Food Co-op. Vibhakar is tired of waiting and keeping quiet.
"If they can't run a simple market, they can sit at home," Vibhakar said of city hall. "If they can't run the market what are they going to do? Run the whole city?"
She should know.
For 26 years, Vibhakar has owned A Spice Of India, a thriving business at 262 King St. E., and for 18 years, she's operated a stall in the Saturday morning markets.
"Why has no one taken responsibility? That's all I'm asking," Vibhakar said.
Her question points to what one consultant believes is a far-reaching problem with Your Kitchener Market -- the way it is run.
City councillors remain in ultimate control, acting as the board of directors. A couple of staffers run the day-to-day operation.
It's an increasingly rare way to run a market, Bob Usher, the general manager of Covent Garden Market in London, said in an interview.
Almost all of the North America's publicly owned or not-for-profit markets are run by independent boards of directors.
Board members bring expertise in retail, real estate, accounting, marketing, community development and leasing.
The membership may include a city councillor or two, and vendors.
The board hires a general manager. The general manager hires staff.
Decisions can be made quickly. There are clear lines of responsibility and accountability.
Usher is currently working with the City of Toronto to help revive part of the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. One of his key recommendations -- set up an independent board of directors.
Currently, the manager of the Kitchener market cannot make major decisions, and city councillors say they don't want to micromanage staff.
While city councillors act as the market's board of directors, Vibhakar said she seldom if ever sees them shopping in the market.
"They need to create a board and address the issues," Vibhakar said. "They need to say these are the strengths, these are the drawbacks. Let's build on the strengths and address the drawbacks."
One strength is the Saturday market, which draws thousands of shoppers.
The piazza facing King Street, however, sits empty most of the time. And there's all that unused second-floor space where the full-time market was supposed to be located.
You don't have to look far to find a thriving urban market run by a not-for-profit corporation, and governed by an independent board of directors.
For more than 150 years, Covent Garden Market has been drawing shoppers to the corner of King and Talbot streets in London, Ont.
It's open seven days a week. Seats are hard to come by weekdays during lunch-hour.
On Saturday mornings, the narrow aisles fill with shoppers. Neighbouring streets are packed with restaurants and shops.
An outdoor market is held three days a week during the warm months. A part-time market staffer recruits farmers to sell produce and other foods in the public square in front of Covent Garden.
There are more than 1,440 farms in Waterloo Region that could be tapped for a similar outdoor market here.
Usher encourages ethnic groups and other organizations to use the public space free of charge, providing a sound system, stage and canopies on request.
Twenty-eight events are booked for Covent Garden square between Jan. 1 and Oct. 25 this year. These include a bridal show and a children's festival.
There were only a couple events last year in front of Your Kitchener Market, including the Kitchener Blues Festival and a night of live music during Tapestry, part of the city's multicultural celebrations.
"I invite people to use the space, especially ethnic groups," Usher said.
"They get a chance to showcase their community, and we get crowds in front of the market."
Covent Garden Market also gets the revenue from hundreds of parking spaces in the downtown area, ensuring revenues exceed expenses and that no annual subsidy is needed from city hall.
Urban markets do not have to be big to be successful.
Food Share runs 12 small, year-round markets in Toronto neighbourhoods with large visible-minority populations.
They create vibrant people places and increase access to culturally appropriate food, says Food Share's Angela Elzinga-Cheng.
One market has developed a catering and food-vending business. Another sells crafts. Other market spinoffs include a youth film project and a youth rap group.
"We increased the vision for what these markets can actually do. They have enormous potential for economic development and place-making," Cheng said.
When Kitchener city councillors meet on Monday, they are scheduled to hear a pitch for the creation of a full-time food co-op on Your Kitchener Market's second floor.
For months, a small group of citizens and market vendors has quietly been working on the proposal.
It's called the Kitchener Market Collaborative.
Here's how it would work.
Vendors from the Saturday market would provide products the collaborative would sell upstairs in a minigrocery market with a central checkout.
That way the Saturday vendors can sell their goods without each one having to provide staff.
The cost of staff would be shared by participating vendors. A small fee would be charged to each vendor. The city would be asked to provide counters and freezers at no charge.
Products would include meats, cheeses, produce, baked goods, and what the collaborative calls regional specialties.
The collaborative wants to begin the project on Wednesdays only.
"The intent is to extend this minigrocery market concept to a full-time weekday market as soon as it is feasible," says an information leaflet recently distributed to the market's vendors.
The minigrocery market would be managed by a three-way partnership involving the city, vendors and citizens. It's viewed as a model that gives vendors more say.
The group believes this is a low-risk venture for vendors.
"Since our model proposes the city supply all counters and freezers, and the upstairs space is already available, we do not foresee any additional cost to vendors beyond the investment of their time, product and signage to make this idea work, starting with Wednesdays this spring," says the collaborative.
"The much larger risk, in our opinion, comes from waiting for the city to decide what to do with the upstairs market without input from vendors and citizens."
The group behind the Market Collaborative includes Karen Taylor-Harrison, a former city councillor and longtime neighbourhood activist in nearby Cedar Hill; Mark Yantzi, another former city councillor; and Thomas Seebohm, an architect, university professor and downtown resident.
Some of the market vendors involved include Mary Jane Bast of Bast Cheese, Richard Koller of Osogood Meats and Ed Denyer of Eco Coffee.
Tom Graham of the citizens group I Believe in Kitchener is also part of the collaborative.
Graham and the collaborative want city councillors to stick with the original vision for a full-time market on the second floor.
"Kitchener council is faced with a very important decision as to what to do with the future of the market, and we feel it would be a big loss if the market were to no longer function in the way it was anticipated to function," Graham said.
A full-time market is a very real possibility in the future if the city supports the collaborative, he said.
"We know it's not possible to do this all of a sudden, overnight, that it would take awhile to nurture something that could be so vital.
"It is another piece of the puzzle for the rejuvenation of the downtown core. To abandon the market at this critical point in its history would be a disaster," Graham said.
As a plan, the new market seemed to start well.
The city formed a community task force to look at possible designs and key features. Rick Haldenby, the director of the University of Waterloo school of architecture, was part of the team.
But, with no warning, the city announced it was forming a partnership with a condominium developer -- Barrel Works Kitchener.
There was no request for proposals, and no design competition. There were some public meetings, minor changes to the design, but the process essentially left city councillors with one choice.
"The partnership was not the problem, the problem was the design," Haldenby said.
All but a few of the condos that wrap around the Duke Street side of the block are sold and occupied. But that success is not matched on the other side of the block where most of the retail space on the King Street side remains empty.
The market is squeezed in between the condos at the back and the empty commercial space at the front.
Eby Street hums with shoppers and vendors on Saturday mornings when it's warm, and the activity spills into Market Lane. During the cold months, vendors are packed into the parking garage.
City councillors balked at spending about $350,000 to enclose the Eby Street side of the market with walls containing large, roll-up openings.
During the past several months city staff have studied a number of possibilities for Your Kitchener Market.
Keith Baulk, the city's director of enterprises, said two companies responded to the city's request for proposals to turn over management of the market to the private sector.
About six months ago, city staff sought and received city council's approval to further investigate setting up an arts-and-culture incubator in the upstairs of the market.
A consultant told city council not enough people live downtown to support a market, so the arts incubator was a good idea.
It would include studio spaces for working artists, and gallery space for displaying and selling the work.
Recently, city councillors met behind closed doors to hear a report on what the market is worth.
The answer? Far less than the $22 million it cost taxpayers to build it. Selling it doesn't appear to be a serious option.
Private-sector management, an arts incubator, a co-op market on the second floor -- all of them will be up for discussion when councillors meet Monday afternoon to make big decisions about Your Kitchener Market.
tpender@therecord.com
FROM BERLIN'S MARKET HOUSE TO YOUR KITCHENER MARKET
March 1866 -- Berlin Town Council appoints a committee to search for a site for a new market. During the next three years there is a lot of controversy about the move, and when the town council passed a bylaw to borrow the money for the project, the voters rejected it in a plebiscite. But the councillors pushed ahead with the market project anyway.
April 17, 1869 -- At a public meeting, the Berlin Town Council is urged to buy land near King and Frederick streets for a market building. A resolution is passed in support of the move. The land near King and Frederick streets is bought for $1,720.
Jacob Y. Shantz wins the contract to build the Berlin Market House, which is largely completed by December 1869. It cost $3,818. Eight stalls in the basement are rented to butchers for $430 a year. An outdoor market is held behind the building as well. On the main floor is the town council chambers. A large public hall is on the second floor.
In the municipal elections of 1870, there are two factions--the pro-Market House and anti-Market House. The pro-faction wins, and the entire council is returned to office. This is a forerunner to a bitter debate and battle that will occur 100 years later over the fate of the farmers' market.
The town council and administration need more room so a new market building is constructed nearby in 1907.
1907-1972--The farmers market was located in a two-storey red brick building at the corner of Frederick and Duke streets. It was 225 feet long, 65 feet wide, and cost $30,000 to build (including interest). This market endured for about 50 years and was praised as one of the best in North America.
"It is difficult to identify those components that make any market a great market. Kitchener had a great market. It was an ecological phenomenon." -- Jack Pasternak in The Kitchener Market Fight.
In 1922 Kitchener voters support the building of a new City Hall near the farmers' market. A neo-classical building is constructed and topped with a clock tower and belfry, which are now at the Joseph Street entrance to Victoria Park.
The market and City Hall stand until a bitter year-long dispute breaks out in the early 1970s over plans to tear down both buildings, construct a downtown mall, Eaton's department store, Zehrs store and parking garage.
Dec. 6, 1971 - A plebiscite is held asking voters if they support demolition of the venerable buildings and back construction of the mall and parking garage. 15,689 voted Yes. 11,513 voted No.
The farmers' market is moved into a small part of the new mall when it opens. Most of the Saturday morning vendors set up on the first floor of the attached parking garage at the corner of Scott and Duke streets. The Wednesday market is sometimes held outdoors on Frederick Street.
By 2003 the farmers' market required an annual infusion of $440,000 from city taxpayers.
In the late 1990s, the city starts quietly buying up land on the block bordered by King, Eby, Duke and Cedar streets. It spends more than $2 million.
A city official announces a partnership with a private-sector developer to build the new market. Community-based groups working with the city on plans for the new market are stunned.
The city pays $17.4 million (including land costs) and the provincial government kicks in $4.3 million.
Your Kitchener Market opens in May 2004. Saturday morning markets are packed with shoppers. A few months later the full-time shops on the second floor open for business. The full-time vendors are all gone within months because of low sales.
By 2007 the market needed $740,000 from city coffers for operations.
March 2008 -- Councillors will decide whether to start an arts and culture incubator on the site, turn over management to a private company, get a large grocery store on the second floor, sell the market to the private sector, or try again to have independent vendors operating a full-time market on the upper floor.
PETER LEE, RECORD STAFF 1
PETER LEE, RECORD STAFF
PETER LEE, RECORD STAFF
TERRY PENDER
RECORD STAFF
KITCHENER
Bharti Vibhakar rises before the sun every Saturday morning, drives downtown from her suburban home and unloads boxes to set up her popular stall in Your Kitchener Market.
Vibhakar is a market fixture, selling samosas, frozen Indian dishes and a variety of spices, chutney and other South-Asian foods.
She can be heard chatting with customers, exchanging news about family and friends.
But beneath the friendly banter, the veteran entrepreneur is seething.
The way Vibhakar sees it, the farmers' market has had problems since it opened in its current location in May 2004.
Nobody has taken responsibility for the problems at this cherished institution, she says.
Nobody has come up solutions.
"They went and created something worse after spending all this money," Vibhakar said of decision-makers at Kitchener City Hall.
The city spent about $22 million to buy up the land and businesses in the block bordered by King, Cedar, Duke and Eby streets, then build the market.
Saturday markets started in this location in May 2004.
After five years, it was supposed to self-sufficient.
Instead, the annual subsidy for Your Kitchener Market has steadily increased to $784,000 a year.
That's up nearly $300,000 from the days when the market did business in the parking garage of a nearby mall.
But on Monday city councillors are scheduled to debate the future of the market. Their decisions will have big impacts on vendors, shoppers, the neighbourhood around the market and taxpayers.
In September 2004, a full-time market opened on the second floor of the new location. Within months, all of the vendors had pulled out, citing slow sales.
Owners of the ethnic kitchens on the other half of the second floor have struggled ever since. In a bid to help, the city has waived most of their fees.
Only one full-time vendor remains on the second floor -- the Eby Food Co-op. Vibhakar is tired of waiting and keeping quiet.
"If they can't run a simple market, they can sit at home," Vibhakar said of city hall. "If they can't run the market what are they going to do? Run the whole city?"
She should know.
For 26 years, Vibhakar has owned A Spice Of India, a thriving business at 262 King St. E., and for 18 years, she's operated a stall in the Saturday morning markets.
"Why has no one taken responsibility? That's all I'm asking," Vibhakar said.
Her question points to what one consultant believes is a far-reaching problem with Your Kitchener Market -- the way it is run.
City councillors remain in ultimate control, acting as the board of directors. A couple of staffers run the day-to-day operation.
It's an increasingly rare way to run a market, Bob Usher, the general manager of Covent Garden Market in London, said in an interview.
Almost all of the North America's publicly owned or not-for-profit markets are run by independent boards of directors.
Board members bring expertise in retail, real estate, accounting, marketing, community development and leasing.
The membership may include a city councillor or two, and vendors.
The board hires a general manager. The general manager hires staff.
Decisions can be made quickly. There are clear lines of responsibility and accountability.
Usher is currently working with the City of Toronto to help revive part of the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. One of his key recommendations -- set up an independent board of directors.
Currently, the manager of the Kitchener market cannot make major decisions, and city councillors say they don't want to micromanage staff.
While city councillors act as the market's board of directors, Vibhakar said she seldom if ever sees them shopping in the market.
"They need to create a board and address the issues," Vibhakar said. "They need to say these are the strengths, these are the drawbacks. Let's build on the strengths and address the drawbacks."
One strength is the Saturday market, which draws thousands of shoppers.
The piazza facing King Street, however, sits empty most of the time. And there's all that unused second-floor space where the full-time market was supposed to be located.
You don't have to look far to find a thriving urban market run by a not-for-profit corporation, and governed by an independent board of directors.
For more than 150 years, Covent Garden Market has been drawing shoppers to the corner of King and Talbot streets in London, Ont.
It's open seven days a week. Seats are hard to come by weekdays during lunch-hour.
On Saturday mornings, the narrow aisles fill with shoppers. Neighbouring streets are packed with restaurants and shops.
An outdoor market is held three days a week during the warm months. A part-time market staffer recruits farmers to sell produce and other foods in the public square in front of Covent Garden.
There are more than 1,440 farms in Waterloo Region that could be tapped for a similar outdoor market here.
Usher encourages ethnic groups and other organizations to use the public space free of charge, providing a sound system, stage and canopies on request.
Twenty-eight events are booked for Covent Garden square between Jan. 1 and Oct. 25 this year. These include a bridal show and a children's festival.
There were only a couple events last year in front of Your Kitchener Market, including the Kitchener Blues Festival and a night of live music during Tapestry, part of the city's multicultural celebrations.
"I invite people to use the space, especially ethnic groups," Usher said.
"They get a chance to showcase their community, and we get crowds in front of the market."
Covent Garden Market also gets the revenue from hundreds of parking spaces in the downtown area, ensuring revenues exceed expenses and that no annual subsidy is needed from city hall.
Urban markets do not have to be big to be successful.
Food Share runs 12 small, year-round markets in Toronto neighbourhoods with large visible-minority populations.
They create vibrant people places and increase access to culturally appropriate food, says Food Share's Angela Elzinga-Cheng.
One market has developed a catering and food-vending business. Another sells crafts. Other market spinoffs include a youth film project and a youth rap group.
"We increased the vision for what these markets can actually do. They have enormous potential for economic development and place-making," Cheng said.
When Kitchener city councillors meet on Monday, they are scheduled to hear a pitch for the creation of a full-time food co-op on Your Kitchener Market's second floor.
For months, a small group of citizens and market vendors has quietly been working on the proposal.
It's called the Kitchener Market Collaborative.
Here's how it would work.
Vendors from the Saturday market would provide products the collaborative would sell upstairs in a minigrocery market with a central checkout.
That way the Saturday vendors can sell their goods without each one having to provide staff.
The cost of staff would be shared by participating vendors. A small fee would be charged to each vendor. The city would be asked to provide counters and freezers at no charge.
Products would include meats, cheeses, produce, baked goods, and what the collaborative calls regional specialties.
The collaborative wants to begin the project on Wednesdays only.
"The intent is to extend this minigrocery market concept to a full-time weekday market as soon as it is feasible," says an information leaflet recently distributed to the market's vendors.
The minigrocery market would be managed by a three-way partnership involving the city, vendors and citizens. It's viewed as a model that gives vendors more say.
The group believes this is a low-risk venture for vendors.
"Since our model proposes the city supply all counters and freezers, and the upstairs space is already available, we do not foresee any additional cost to vendors beyond the investment of their time, product and signage to make this idea work, starting with Wednesdays this spring," says the collaborative.
"The much larger risk, in our opinion, comes from waiting for the city to decide what to do with the upstairs market without input from vendors and citizens."
The group behind the Market Collaborative includes Karen Taylor-Harrison, a former city councillor and longtime neighbourhood activist in nearby Cedar Hill; Mark Yantzi, another former city councillor; and Thomas Seebohm, an architect, university professor and downtown resident.
Some of the market vendors involved include Mary Jane Bast of Bast Cheese, Richard Koller of Osogood Meats and Ed Denyer of Eco Coffee.
Tom Graham of the citizens group I Believe in Kitchener is also part of the collaborative.
Graham and the collaborative want city councillors to stick with the original vision for a full-time market on the second floor.
"Kitchener council is faced with a very important decision as to what to do with the future of the market, and we feel it would be a big loss if the market were to no longer function in the way it was anticipated to function," Graham said.
A full-time market is a very real possibility in the future if the city supports the collaborative, he said.
"We know it's not possible to do this all of a sudden, overnight, that it would take awhile to nurture something that could be so vital.
"It is another piece of the puzzle for the rejuvenation of the downtown core. To abandon the market at this critical point in its history would be a disaster," Graham said.
As a plan, the new market seemed to start well.
The city formed a community task force to look at possible designs and key features. Rick Haldenby, the director of the University of Waterloo school of architecture, was part of the team.
But, with no warning, the city announced it was forming a partnership with a condominium developer -- Barrel Works Kitchener.
There was no request for proposals, and no design competition. There were some public meetings, minor changes to the design, but the process essentially left city councillors with one choice.
"The partnership was not the problem, the problem was the design," Haldenby said.
All but a few of the condos that wrap around the Duke Street side of the block are sold and occupied. But that success is not matched on the other side of the block where most of the retail space on the King Street side remains empty.
The market is squeezed in between the condos at the back and the empty commercial space at the front.
Eby Street hums with shoppers and vendors on Saturday mornings when it's warm, and the activity spills into Market Lane. During the cold months, vendors are packed into the parking garage.
City councillors balked at spending about $350,000 to enclose the Eby Street side of the market with walls containing large, roll-up openings.
During the past several months city staff have studied a number of possibilities for Your Kitchener Market.
Keith Baulk, the city's director of enterprises, said two companies responded to the city's request for proposals to turn over management of the market to the private sector.
About six months ago, city staff sought and received city council's approval to further investigate setting up an arts-and-culture incubator in the upstairs of the market.
A consultant told city council not enough people live downtown to support a market, so the arts incubator was a good idea.
It would include studio spaces for working artists, and gallery space for displaying and selling the work.
Recently, city councillors met behind closed doors to hear a report on what the market is worth.
The answer? Far less than the $22 million it cost taxpayers to build it. Selling it doesn't appear to be a serious option.
Private-sector management, an arts incubator, a co-op market on the second floor -- all of them will be up for discussion when councillors meet Monday afternoon to make big decisions about Your Kitchener Market.
tpender@therecord.com
FROM BERLIN'S MARKET HOUSE TO YOUR KITCHENER MARKET
March 1866 -- Berlin Town Council appoints a committee to search for a site for a new market. During the next three years there is a lot of controversy about the move, and when the town council passed a bylaw to borrow the money for the project, the voters rejected it in a plebiscite. But the councillors pushed ahead with the market project anyway.
April 17, 1869 -- At a public meeting, the Berlin Town Council is urged to buy land near King and Frederick streets for a market building. A resolution is passed in support of the move. The land near King and Frederick streets is bought for $1,720.
Jacob Y. Shantz wins the contract to build the Berlin Market House, which is largely completed by December 1869. It cost $3,818. Eight stalls in the basement are rented to butchers for $430 a year. An outdoor market is held behind the building as well. On the main floor is the town council chambers. A large public hall is on the second floor.
In the municipal elections of 1870, there are two factions--the pro-Market House and anti-Market House. The pro-faction wins, and the entire council is returned to office. This is a forerunner to a bitter debate and battle that will occur 100 years later over the fate of the farmers' market.
The town council and administration need more room so a new market building is constructed nearby in 1907.
1907-1972--The farmers market was located in a two-storey red brick building at the corner of Frederick and Duke streets. It was 225 feet long, 65 feet wide, and cost $30,000 to build (including interest). This market endured for about 50 years and was praised as one of the best in North America.
"It is difficult to identify those components that make any market a great market. Kitchener had a great market. It was an ecological phenomenon." -- Jack Pasternak in The Kitchener Market Fight.
In 1922 Kitchener voters support the building of a new City Hall near the farmers' market. A neo-classical building is constructed and topped with a clock tower and belfry, which are now at the Joseph Street entrance to Victoria Park.
The market and City Hall stand until a bitter year-long dispute breaks out in the early 1970s over plans to tear down both buildings, construct a downtown mall, Eaton's department store, Zehrs store and parking garage.
Dec. 6, 1971 - A plebiscite is held asking voters if they support demolition of the venerable buildings and back construction of the mall and parking garage. 15,689 voted Yes. 11,513 voted No.
The farmers' market is moved into a small part of the new mall when it opens. Most of the Saturday morning vendors set up on the first floor of the attached parking garage at the corner of Scott and Duke streets. The Wednesday market is sometimes held outdoors on Frederick Street.
By 2003 the farmers' market required an annual infusion of $440,000 from city taxpayers.
In the late 1990s, the city starts quietly buying up land on the block bordered by King, Eby, Duke and Cedar streets. It spends more than $2 million.
A city official announces a partnership with a private-sector developer to build the new market. Community-based groups working with the city on plans for the new market are stunned.
The city pays $17.4 million (including land costs) and the provincial government kicks in $4.3 million.
Your Kitchener Market opens in May 2004. Saturday morning markets are packed with shoppers. A few months later the full-time shops on the second floor open for business. The full-time vendors are all gone within months because of low sales.
By 2007 the market needed $740,000 from city coffers for operations.
March 2008 -- Councillors will decide whether to start an arts and culture incubator on the site, turn over management to a private company, get a large grocery store on the second floor, sell the market to the private sector, or try again to have independent vendors operating a full-time market on the upper floor.
