BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE
How is the Midtown Global Market like the internet? Well, the Market is now such an essential part of our community life here in the Phillips, Central and Powderhorn neighborhoods that, just like cat videos, online games and Instagram, it’s hard to imagine life without it. But it is a mere nine years and a bit since it first opened its doors; the Market will celebrate its 10th anniversary in style in June 2016.
Having established that the Market is a lot like the internet, we will now borrow a page from that worthy institution and include a “listicle.” Here are “9 Things You May Not Know about the Midtown Global Market”:
1. The building that houses the Market is a treasure of historical architecture. It used to be a Sears store, did you know that? OK, you probably did know that. But did you know that it’s listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Sears, Roebuck and Company Mail-Order Warehouse and Retail Store?
2. The Market is not at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Lake Street. Although its address as listed on several websites is 2929 Chicago Ave. S., it cannot be entered off of Chicago Avenue. The NE corner of Chicago and Lake is occupied by the Metro Transit station. The official address, per the USPS and your GPS, is 920 E. Lake St.
3. The Market is part of the second largest structure in Minnesota. The Midtown Exchange (the name of the entire old Sears Building, which includes the Allina Health Complex, the apartments and condominiums, and other private and public tenants as well as the Market) is second in size only to the Mall of America for Minnesota buildings.
4. The Market is neither a nonprofit corporation nor a private business. The Market itself is a commercial property within the Midtown Exchange, and renting to for-profit businesses and some public projects. But, the Market, which is owned by two nonprofit corporations, the Neighborhood Development Center and the Cultural Wellness Center, houses what is known as a business incubator. In the sense that the Market includes both profit and nonprofit components, it is a public-private partnership.
5. The businesses in the Market include four which are licensed to serve alcohol. Three of them serve drinks in a restaurant/bar setting, one of which is one of the newest tenants, a craft brewery. The fourth, the Kitchen in the Market, has a license so they can use alcohol in recipes in their cooking classes, which are also consumed by the participants. (That sounds fun, doesn’t it?)
6. The Market is also a regular performance venue. There are eclectic performances of music, dance and spoken word at various times in the open seating space. See below for some upcoming events.
7. The building housing the Market has a twin in Boston. Yes, the Midtown Exchange has a sister-building in Boston called the Landmark Center. It not only was a former Sears building, and is now a renovated commercial space, but it has a nearly identical design and was built in the same decade. Although not similar enough to be actual twins, there are also re-purposed large ex-Sears towers in LA, Atlanta, Dallas, Kansas City and Memphis. Two more were demolished instead of being renovated. I’ll bet those cities are kicking themselves now.
8. You can take a Taste of Midtown Global Market Tour and take your taste buds around the world in only 90 minutes. Cuisines include Swedish, Mexican and other Latin-American, Middle Eastern, Somali/East African, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Korean, Italian and American. And I probably missed a couple. Details and prices are found on the Market’s website.
9. Hanging out at the Midtown Global Market or another pleasant, safe “town square” type public place is part of a healthy lifestyle. There is some actual truth to the ironic phrase “retail therapy.” But whether you buy or consume something or not, the relaxed environment, the chance to be exposed to other points of view and cultures, and to experience interconnectedness with your neighbors and others have all been shown to have positive health outcomes.
And, speaking of safety, the Market and the Midtown Exchange’s presence has been very good for the surrounding neighborhoods of Phillips, Powderhorn and Central. Within three years of the opening of the Midtown Global Market in June of 2006, crime in the surrounding quarter mile radius circle dropped an amazing 25%.
To gather some of this information, we spoke with Becky George, who is the cultural events and property manager of the Market for NDC. She came to NDC in 2005 after being a proprietor of a floral business for six years in the Mercado Central, another property initiated and managed by them. She was the Mercado Central property manager for six years, then transferred to the Midtown Global Market, where she now works, along with Earlsworth (Baba) Letang, who does new business recruitment and leasing. Besides the cultural and wellness aspects of the Market, she emphasized the Market’s powerful positive economic impact. A brochure put out by NDC notes that, for all six of their projects, three of which are along Lake Street in Midtown, $46 million is returned to communities every year, at a rate of $28 returned for every dollar invested. NDC entrepreneurs altogether have created an estimated 2,285 jobs in about 120 small businesses.
The upcoming month will see some interesting events at the Midtown Global Market. The Creative City Roadmap Exhibition, a creative place-making project, will be installed at the Market on Oct. 5. On Oct. 12, Indigenous People’s Day in Minneapolis, there will be a forum about the Creative City Roadmap process at 11 a.m. with community guest Alejandra Tobar-Alatriz. Growing in the Backyard continues to hold mini-farmers’ markets on Wednesdays and Fridays, through October or until the crops are all gone. For Dia de los Muertos, an ofrenda will be installed by Oct. 26, and samplings of Mexican foods will be offered 11 a.m. to noon on Nov. 1. Nov. 7 will see a Chili Cook-off from noon to 2 p.m. So, see you at the Midtown Global Market this month?
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