Anchorage

Anchorage Saturday Market to stay downtown another year, but future uncertain

After more than an hour of emotional testimony and discussion from an all-volunteer board of directors, the Anchorage Community Development Authority unanimously passed a resolution extending the Anchorage Market and Festival's contract for a single year -- Webb's Consulting & Management Services will host the market in the downtown parking lot next summer. Over the next year, the board will continue to look at other opportunities for the space.

The resolution gives Bill Webb, the market's director, another year to consider where his employees and some 220 to 240 vendors would go if the board handed over management of the parking lot to someone else. Before passing the resolution unanimously, the board added an amendment clarifying that over the next year it would "evaluate and consider other options or an RFP (request for proposal) for continued use of the parking lot."

The board did not offer insight into those other options. So, if a better offer comes along, a market could still exist in the lot, located at Third Avenue and E Street, and the market's home for 22 years. Webb has run the market since 1999; his current 7-year agreement ends Sept. 30.

Jan Sieberts, the authority's vice-chair and the director who introduced the resolution, said it was no mystery that Webb's contract was coming to an end. But no one came forward with a plan, he said.

"(The authority) is working in good faith with Webb to give him a year, and we will work aggressively to look at our options," Sieberts said.

Sieberts listened to the testimony of vendors and Fourth Avenue business owners, and he contended near the end of the meeting that he'd never seen another program in Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, that supports up to 240 businesses.

Although the market operates for a mere 18 weeks during Alaska's short summers, many of the vendors rely on it as their sole source of income.

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"I will support the extension," he said, "but I don't know how to make everyone completely satisfied today."

Board member Lucinda Mahoney said the authority needs to conduct a request for proposals, as she's heard from the community an "interest in doing things differently."

Assembly member Ernie Hall attended the meeting, representing the city's legislative body. The assembly handles public processes in a similar fashion, he said, and equal opportunity should be given to competitors. But he recognized Webb's success in handling the market for the past 14 years.

Addressing the concerns of the market's vendors over a potential move of the summer event, up one block to Fourth Avenue, Hall said the authority owns the parking lot, not the market.

"I want that to be clear … so when an RFP goes out, (the market) could be called anything if another bidder is successful."

Both markets could succeed together, he offered.

Mission inheritance

The board meeting was limited to 50 people; the authority said it would be breaking fire code if it allowed more people in. Shortly before the 4 p.m. meeting began, a handful of vendors remained outside a locked door, behind a front desk shielded with glass, and were prevented from entering, despite strong desires to do so.

The group who did make it into the conference room sat on folded chairs surrounding the board members' roundtable of authority. Each business owner who spoke had signed up beforehand and were given three minutes to argue their case for the future of the market.

First to address the board was Webb. He handed out the market's mission statement around the room, contending it hadn't changed in 22 years. He inherited the mission, he said. The statement says the market is meant to enhance the quality of life for "Anchorage residents, visitors and vendors" and to make "productive use on the weekends of Anchorage's downtown parking facilities."

"People have claimed our mission is different, but it's never changed," Webb said. "The market was created for the community and we've done that in spades."

In 1999, at the request of then-mayor Rick Mystrom, the market was moved to Fourth Avenue. The move failed to satisfy all of the involved parties, Webb said. There were theft issues, safety issues -- three near-misses with visitors walking out of the market and into moving traffic -- even a couple of assaults. In its current location, the market has had none of those issues, he said.

Webb also detailed two independent surveys done in the past, which concluded the market was good for Anchorage's economy. He hammered home this argument: "If it's not broke, don't fix it."

Lynn Clark, a first-year vendor, told the board their lack of a plan confused her. Instead, she focused her three minutes on vendors' attitudes and market savvy she has observed during her short tenure.

"They promote Anchorage," she said. "Like places to eat; we offer suggestions to visitors, like Humpy's, Simon & Seafort's, even McGinley's (Pub)."

There have been complaints that the market was intended to serve as a venue for farmers, but Clark said there are already multiple farmers' markets around the city, such as Spenard, South Side and the Sears parking lot.

Echoing Webb's sentiments about a well-run business, she said, "If a plant is thriving in its current location, you leave it alone."

Perry Green, of David Green Master Furrier, disagreed with the vendors. He does not want to see the market go away; he wants to see it move.

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The business owners on Fourth Avenue are struggling, he said. Although, not him, he added. That does not change the fact, according to Green, that business falters every Saturday and Sunday the market is open.

"On the weekends, I don't get people coming through anymore," Green said. "Everyone goes down to the market, and then they get tired and decide to go home. There's merely fringe visitors to the stores."

Sieberts asked Green where he thought the market should go. "That's up to the board," Green replied.

Block party

Between board meetings, and perhaps because the idea of moving the market caused such a ruckus, the authority requested the Anchorage Downtown Partnership -- a private non-profit that advocates for improvements among many of the city's original avenues and hosts about 200 events a year, 20 of which are "block-style events" -- to conduct a survey of business and property owners along Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues.

Chris Schutte, of the Partnership, presented the review's findings to the board but said the limited survey was carried out with little more than a conceptual question and no concrete plan in place for a market on Fourth. Only 45 respondents answered two questions.

Owners asked if they were in favor of a weekend market that would be held on Fourth Avenue and "some" side streets during the summer months overwhelmingly answered yes. Seventy-four percent of respondents answered yes, 13 percent said no and the remaining owners were on the fence.

Given a choice between no weekend market of any kind versus continuing the status quo, the preference was more evenly split, with 53 percent of the owners opting for no market while 47 percent said let it stay.

Overall, the board was unimpressed with the findings, saying more data was needed.

Contact Jerzy Shedlock at jerzy(at)alaskadispatch.com

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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