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The James Beard Public Market plans to open in fall 2025, stakeholders told members of the press and Oregon’s state and federal delegation on Monday, Oct. 28. The group met in a gutted ground-floor retail space inside downtown Portland’s Selling Building, which was most recently a Payless ShoeSource store. Before touring the two buildings that will house it, JBPM executive director Jessica Elkan detailed the work ahead to transform the corner of Southwest 6th Avenue and Alder Street into more than 38,000 square feet of shopping, restaurant and culinary education space.
“We have identified the future home that we are standing in now, thanks to a true public-private partnership,” Elkan said at a press conference, calling JBPM “Portland’s Kitchen, next to Portland’s Living Room, and a front door to Oregon’s bounty.”
Located one block north of Pioneer Courthouse Square, JBPM will house 40 vendors for existing regional businesses, and host new drink and dining concepts in its two-floor building, which includes rooftop seating and a basement-level bakery, wine/spirit and cheese stores, as well as a teaching and test kitchen. Elkan tells WW that JBPM will accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dollars as one of the marketplace’s initiatives to make its nutritious offerings accessible to low-income visitors.
“Part of the mission of this market is ‘a market for all,’ and part of that philosophy is ensuring that everyone can have access,” Elkan says. “If you are on any kind of food assistance, you can use those dollars here, just like any other form of payment.”
Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley delivered remarks praising the project’s potential to revitalize downtown Portland, as did Mayor Ted Wheeler. Dan Drinkward of Hoffman Construction, one of three local firms involved with JBPM’s development, counted it among Portland’s other recent nationally facing cultural announcements, including Portland International Airport’s massive renovation project and the return of professional women’s basketball to the Rose City. Josh Schlesinger, president and CEO of Schlesinger Companies and treasurer of the Schlesinger Foundation, called it a “catalytic and restorative project.”
“While this development will serve as a major landmark, it will also reinforce Portland’s position as a hub for innovation and entrepreneurship, especially in regards to the food and beverage industry, as well as being a primary culinary and cultural destination,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said at the press conference.
Born in 1903 and raised in Portland, James Beard shopped at the Yamhill Street Market before going on to become one of America’s most influential culinary figures. He went on to publish 20 cookbooks, and revolutionized both televised cooking shows and American fine dining presentational aesthetics. Beard’s eponymous memorial foundation recognizes national fine-dining achievements during his birthday week in early May. Public markets of Beard’s time went out of style in favor of modern grocery stores, but are slowly making a comeback.
JBPM will include privately rentable event space, and its test kitchen will be open to emerging food and drink vendors just getting their starts. Elkan tells WW that while retail vendors have not been named yet, Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon and Prosper Portland will help ensure that access to JBPM for emerging small businesses remains equitable.
“That’s the history of public markets, is making sure it’s a pathway to economic opportunity,” she says. “I think of my family’s story. My parents were vendors at Saturday Market for 37 years. They worked there, they sold their crafts, it was their opportunity to earn a living wage at the Portland Saturday Market…that’s what we’re creating. If somebody has a stall, they’re able to work, they’re able to create economic opportunity through a family business.”
A new lumber exterior will appear outside, while old-growth wood that has been inside the Selling Building’s mostly wood next-door neighbor, a former Rite Aid owned by Weston Investment Company. The Schlesinger and Weston families’ commercial and philanthropic entities have contributed significantly to the project, as have partners that include Travel Portland, Travel Oregon and Mayor Wheeler’s office at the city of Portland. Wheeler pledged that the city’s permitting processes would flow smoothly, including for JBPM’s nonstandard signage that he called “iconic,” and that while JBPM’s construction will displace a TriMet bus stop across the street, the city will work with the public transportation agency to open a new one elsewhere along the line.
Greg Higgins—a James Beard Award-winning chef and owner of the restaurant Higgins, who said he’s watched Portland grow from having “two farmers markets and 30 wineries” to “30-plus farmers markets, more than 600 wineries and countless breweries,” also explained the public market’s necessity for Portland’s dining scene.
“Every great food city at its heart has a beautiful market like this,” he says. “Portland has everything it needs except a market.”