The West Side Market is trying to attract more suburbanites to the historic Cleveland location, said Rosemary Mudry, executive director of the Cleveland Public Market Corporation, during a City Club forum Wednesday.
(The forum was moderated by Mike McIntyre, Ideastream Public Media's executive director.)
“When we think about growing back to more than a million visitors, we have to think about adding folks from the suburbs,” Mudry said. “How do we get those folks who come down twice a year? Or when somebody comes into town, how do we get them to be monthly shoppers or come down four times a year?”
The nonprofit, which manages the city-owned market, will make the location more appealing to the Northeast Ohio residents who only visit the market periodically by hosting professional chef demonstrations, adding new seating and event areas and by looking to expand market hours with a new food court, Mudry said.
The Cleveland Public Market Corporation took over the administration of the historic market from the City of Cleveland last year in order to provide the location more support and attention.
Mudry anticipates the master plan attempting to accomplish these goals to be completed within the next five to seven years.
She hopes that this plan will help make The West Side Market the place in the region to discuss food-related topics.
“If we do this right, we’re not just the best market experience in the nation, but we’re actually sort of the go-to place in the region to talk about food, to talk about the food ecosystem, to think about how farm-to-table really works, to think about how we’re providing better access to low-income folks to our food system.”
In the short term, however, Mudry said she and her team aim to make minor improvements to keep customers engaged.
“I think part of our job at the nonprofit is thinking about what are the things we can deliver — like a patio — to help people see the value of the nonprofit in the short term while we work on these things that are going to take... two to five years to complete.”
Listen to the full interview here.
