Portland Public Market Finally Sold For Office Space

As reported in today’s Portland Press Herald, the Portland Public Market finally sold after being empty for two years.  What a sad end to what was hoped to be a vibrant addition to this city.

When the Portland Public Market was opened 10 years ago, it was done with much fanfare and hope for an economic boom.  The Public Market was forseen as a smaller Faneuil Hall — the delightful showplace in Boston.

The Public Market was built by the nonprofit Libra Foundation with the expectation that it would draw hundreds if not thousands of locals and tourists to sample the food, wine, snacks and other amenities — often made right here in Maine.

Unfortunately, instead of running the Portland Public Market like the immensely successful Faneuil Hall Marketplace, those in charge decided that they didn’t want it to really be a destination for “quick food” that would appeal to the lunch or dinner crowd.  Instead, it was promoted more as an upscale grocery store — selling meat, fish and poultry to take home and prepare. 

What people wanted was a place to go and have some quick asian, italian, mexican or barbeque food — maybe even pizza.  They wanted places that sold bakery items, desserts, coffee and deli sandwiches.  In short, they wanted a place where they could quickly walk in and have something fast and easy for lunch, dinner or a snack.

Those are the items that draw hundreds of thousands of people to Boston’s Faneuil Hall.  If the Portland Public Market would have been a smaller version of Faneuil Hall, I believe it would have succeeded easily.

Instead of being a destination to eat, it was a place to buy and bring home — and at very high prices I might add.  That was also a constant complaint about the Market — most things were soooo expensive.  Why?

I was never a vendor there, so I have no first-hand experience.  I can only say what I read at the time and it was always the same thing: constant complaints by the businesses in the Public Market that they were paying outrageously high prices for their space and not making much money.

Why didn’t the Libra Foundation change lower rents?  Dunno.  Why didn’t the owners demand that they follow the wildly successful business model of Faneuil Hall?  Dunno.  When it was clear that their initial business plan wasn’t working, why didn’t they bring in someone with fresh, new ideas?  Again, dunno.

Today’s newspaper report says that “the market closed in 2006, after Libra decided the building had achieved its goals for Bayside and the strong real estate market made it a good time to sell properties in Portland.”

What a load of crap.

The market failed miserably because it was run poorly, lacked leadership with a clear vision, used the wrong business plan, charged too much rent to the vendors, and eventually forced a revolt by those running the businesses and the few patrons it had left.  In short, it was a financial disaster.

As to putting it on the market at a good time — well, it’s been on the market for two years.  What does that tell you about its inflated sales price?

The Libra Foundation bungled its ownership and development of the Public Market in every way possible.  What could have been a unique and exciting addition to this city is now just a memory — a bad memory.

Comments

[virtual office]

I've been visiting your site for some time now. This is the first time I would leave a comment. I love this blog post! So true.

Margarette Smith

[New York Office Space]

It is so sad to see Portland Public Market transformed to office space.