If you’re going to grow a strong tomato vine, you need a trellis. If you’re going to grow a strong public market, you need a plan.
To help direct its growth and stabilize its future, Pike Place Public Market has adopted a new master plan that lays out both the challenges it expects to face in the coming years and ways to help overcome those bumps in the road. It also includes a plan for managing traffic along its interior street.
Here’s an overview of what’s to come for our great Seattle icon.
The challenges
Knowing your “enemy” is half the battle. The main issues the market expects to tackle are:
- Slow downtown recovery: The city government has been working hard to continue attracting traffic downtown following the pandemic, but Seattle is still No. 63 out of 66 US cities when it comes to getting people to come back and hangout.
- Declining farmer population: Total farm attendance in 2022 was only at 69% of pre-pandemic levels.
- Evolving retail trends: It’s a little harder to convince people to go out to shop when online delivery is so easy these days.
- Sustainability needs: The market wants to be as green as possible moving forward.
The methods
With those challenges laid out, the market now has some strategies its looking to employ. Those include:
- Creating a new street management program that allows delivery + safety vehicles to access the market, while still closing some areas for outdoor seating, festivals, and easier pedestrian access.
- Attracting you — yes, you — the locals. They hope that by curating vendors intentionally that they’ll keep you always coming back for more.
- Supporting its farmers + craft-makers by building more seasonal harvest-focused events, expanding its produce subscription service, expanding satellite locations, and more.