Eastern Market New Development moves forward

[gthomas]

New installation of kitchen and food market: Shed 4

[gthomas]

http://modeldmedia.com/devnews/erbfoundation040511.aspx

[1KielsonDrive]

They're trying to model Eastern Market after the long departed festival market place - Trappers Alley. I'd have been happy if they'd just cleaned the market up and given services and incentives to businesses and building owners to convert to lofts and apartments instead of making another Trappers Alley, Paradise Valley, Washington Boulevard, etc, out of the place.

[beanietek]

not to happy about this - if i wanted to shop someplace that looked like a supermarket - i would. I love the market just the way it is - leave well enuf alone.

[stromberg2]

I love it...reminds me of the great markets in Boston and Philly! It will be cool to be able to buy sandwiches and so forth from the place.

Stromberg2

[bailey]

I love it...reminds me of the great markets in Boston and Philly! It will be cool to be able to buy sandwiches and so forth from the place.

Stromberg2

+1 . This looks great. Had no idea they were going that far with the renovations.

[1KielsonDrive]

I love it...reminds me of the great markets in Boston and Philly! It will be cool to be able to buy sandwiches and so forth from the place.

Stromberg2

Then why don't you take a ride out to a Hiller's or Whole Foods in West Bloomfield or Ann Arbor? City Hall ruined Trappers Alley by attempting to make it an 'upscale' festival market place. Now they're meddling with Eastern Market. Not only will it not become 'Yuppieized' [[those people don't like and won't patronize Detroit on a regular basis), they'll upscale beyond the multitudes of ethnic and working class people who can afford to shop there.

[rsa.313]

Plans for the grant, payable over two years, will allow Eastern Market to develop the community kitchen as an hub for food entrepreneurs, in a city where access to commercial kitchen space can be difficult to find. They also hope to increase access to locally grown and processed healthy foods.

"It's going to serve as an incubator for people, especially Detroiters, who want to start their own niche food processing business. It's a good way to not only support the local food system, but to create jobs," says the Erb Foundation's Jodee Fishman Raines.

It's also a way to make better use of produce and other perishables that can go to waste -- fruit that can't be sold can still be pickled or jarred, for example. There will be food demonstrations and workshops encouraging healthy eating, plus the community kitchen can be rented out by groups.

From Model D article.

I wasn't aware that Hillers or Whole Foods operated those types of services.

[1KielsonDrive]

From Model D article.

I wasn't aware that Hillers or Whole Foods operated those types of services.

Those parts may be for the good. I don't believe the commercial markets offer those services. Why not just build those apart from tearing down or rebuilding parts of Eastern Market that are viable now? You also have commercial foodservice programs at existing schools. Why not utilize those instead of displacing them and putting them at EM?

[SaintMe]

Then why don't you take a ride out to a Hiller's or Whole Foods in West Bloomfield or Ann Arbor? City Hall ruined Trappers Alley by attempting to make it an 'upscale' festival market place. Now they're meddling with Eastern Market. Not only will it not become 'Yuppieized' [[those people don't like and won't patronize Detroit on a regular basis), they'll upscale beyond the multitudes of ethnic and working class people who can afford to shop there.

It'll be "hipsterized" before it becomes "Yuppieized" and hipsters do patronize Detroit on a regular basis.

[1KielsonDrive]

It'll be "hipsterized" before it becomes "Yuppieized" and hipsters do patronize Detroit on a regular basis.

For most part, my experience with 'Hipsters' is they don't have a lot of money either. Will they be displaced?

[bartock]

Then why don't you take a ride out to a Hiller's or Whole Foods in West Bloomfield or Ann Arbor? City Hall ruined Trappers Alley by attempting to make it an 'upscale' festival market place. Now they're meddling with Eastern Market. Not only will it not become 'Yuppieized' [[those people don't like and won't patronize Detroit on a regular basis), they'll upscale beyond the multitudes of ethnic and working class people who can afford to shop there.

Pardon the pun, but isn't that an organic, non profit group?

[Pcm]

City Hall ruined Trappers Alley by attempting to make it an 'upscale' festival market place. Now they're meddling with Eastern Market.

City Hall does not operate Eastern Market. EM is operated by the Eastern Market Corporation.


http://www.detroiteasternmarket.com/page.php?p=1&s=8

[bartock]

City Hall does not operate Eastern Market. EM is operated by the Eastern Market Corporation.


http://www.detroiteasternmarket.com/page.php?p=1&s=8

This is what I meant, KielsonDrive. The non-profit operates EM. It didn't go over your head, it was just:

a. Not properly stated to be a pun.

b. Not funny.

[1KielsonDrive]

City Hall does not operate Eastern Market. EM is operated by the Eastern Market Corporation.


http://www.detroiteasternmarket.com/page.php?p=1&s=8

Like there's much difference.

[hamtown mike]

leave well enuf alone.

ahhh the all too familiar battle cry of Detroit.

[1KielsonDrive]

ahhh the all too familiar battle cry of Detroit.

And just as valid of an opinion in many cases as the opposite. Leave it alone. Wreck it. Change it. Tear it down. Rebuild it. You have your opinion and I have mine.

[DetroitPlanner]

not to happy about this - if i wanted to shop someplace that looked like a supermarket - i would. I love the market just the way it is - leave well enuf alone.

Looks like Ikea to me.

I've been to Reading Market in Philly. It is a different place in that it is in the Central Business District's Chinatown area. This allows it to function at peak capacity 7 day a week. It does not have the warehouse and slaughtering that happens at Eastern Market. It is also not ringed by lots of great specialty stores like Rocky's or Hirt's.

[adamjab19]

not to happy about this - if i wanted to shop someplace that looked like a supermarket - i would. I love the market just the way it is - leave well enuf alone.

Did you read the model d article? The pictures make it look like a whole foods but the idea behind it is to create jobs in the food industry by allowing people to perform commercial type food preparations. If you like the outdoor, feeling visit the other 4 sheds in the market. Plus I think this is helping the market to have more slection during the cold months where it does in fact suck to shop outside.

And about the yuppies. Have you seen the clientele at the market lately? That's what makes the market survive! There are enough people to buy the peppers 5 for $2 but you need the people to buy the $10 pickels and the organic granola too, ya know?

[1KielsonDrive]

You guys [[girls) are all correct that EM needs the improvements. I don't dislike the idea of improving the place, after all EM is one of my very favorite things about Detroit. Even in it's worst shabby state it is a must visit - a gem. When living in other states, I always made it home to EM, summer and winter. My concern is that city hall will screw this one up like so many others in the past - build a monument and then ignore and neglect it: no security, no trash pick-up. excessive and unfair parking enforcement, etc. Detroit has a history of ruining the true, genuine things about the city and letting others crumble: Washington Blvd tinker toys, Harmonie Park, Hart Plaza and so on. I'd like to see this development stand separate from the original EM, thereby maintaining it's unique nature. Fix up the sheds and build another EM next to.

[adamjab19]

My concern is that city hall will screw this one up like so many others in the past - build a monument and then ignore and neglect it: no security, no trash pick-up. excessive and unfair parking enforcement, etc. Detroit has a history of ruining the true, genuine things about the city and letting others crumble: Washington Blvd tinker toys, Harmonie Park, Hart Plaza and so on. I'd like to see this development stand separate from the original EM, thereby maintaining it's unique nature. Fix up the sheds and build another EM next to.

I really think your city of detroit comments are quite baseless. I don't see them getting involved at all. Witout city involvement an organization has come in and already provides security, already provides garbage pickup and has not tampered with the parking in the area. [[That's the one thing they could work on actually, like getting rid of that garage or rehabing it.)

I don't think this will take away much from the market. Plus regarding taking away from other restaurants: Each restaurant is such a niche product it would be tough to compete directly with the restaurants that are currently there.

I think this will strengthen the market. While this rehab may be taking away from some open market space I don't think we will be missing a fruit resell booth that is selling raspberries like 12 other booths in the three previous sheds. However, I will take into consideration that maybe one of the abandoned warehouses around there could have been used but I am sure the costs etc. to purchase/rehab a building compared to 'fixing up' one of their own settled that deal pretty quickly.

[1KielsonDrive]

Sorry, I didn't get the pun. ZZzzzzzzz, right over my head. Help me out.

[GUSHI]

Looks very nice

[Gsgeorge]

What is wrong with you guys? This looks like a beautiful project. It will provide all Detroiters with a lot of great new opportunities for learning & shopping. EM is one of our core areas and it deserves the renovations and investment that it is seeing. Just because it is coming from the top down does not mean that it is bad. Do you really think these improvements will turn away regular Detroiters? It's not like they're going to start charging an entrance fee. I think these additions and improvements will help attract even more people.

How exactly would you like to see EM improved? Leave all the dumpy sheds untouched and under-utilized? The current indoor & outdoor shed restorations have been a tremendous improvement over what was there before, and they have not changed the character or genuineness of the district in the least. In fact, they've added to it.

[JohnnyFreddy]

What is wrong with you guys? This looks like a beautiful project. It will provide all Detroiters with a lot of great new opportunities for learning & shopping. EM is one of our core areas and it deserves the renovations and investment that it is seeing. Just because it is coming from the top down does not mean that it is bad. Do you really think these improvements will turn away regular Detroiters? It's not like they're going to start charging an entrance fee. I think these additions and improvements will help attract even more people.

How exactly would you like to see EM improved? Leave all the dumpy sheds untouched and under-utilized? The current indoor & outdoor shed restorations have been a tremendous improvement over what was there before, and they have not changed the character or genuineness of the district in the least. In fact, they've added to it.

I disagree. For one, the old sheds were not bad looking, in fact, they were beautiful. But they were rotting and falling apart, hence the replacement. And yes
they are very nice, although I do miss the food kiosk, with the bench seating
surrounding it. It's nice to have somewhere for the older folk to sit a spell, so they can then continue shopping, instead of just leaving...agreed?
In the summertime, when things are hopping, those sheds, old or new, are NOT
underutilized. At other times, the market is CLOSED. Now, if they decide to extend
the hours of operation past the traditional 4:00am-3:00pm, set by the hours kept
by the previously mentioned slaughter houses and produce exchanges.....
then maybe something drastically different would have to be achieved.
But then that wouldn't be the Eastern Market anymore.
That would be more like a supermarket, from what I deducted from the proposed pics. posted.
I vote...No supermarket in this area. Move it down the street.
This town is plenty big enough, and empty enough, for this idea to flourish elsewhere. IMHO.