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Expanded Tampa Downtown Market reopens this week
Staff file photo by JEFF HOUCK
Tampa Downtown Market founder Tiffany Ferrechia has signed 55 vendors for this year's market, up from last year's 38.
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Published: October 15, 2009
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TAMPA - Manhattan's Bryant Park is one of America's great urban public spaces, with its mixture of festivals, market vendors, concerts and relaxing open areas.
Tampa doesn't have anything like it yet, but Tiffany Ferrecchia is hoping the Tampa Downtown Market she started last year with the Tampa Downtown Partnership can build toward that atmosphere.
The market, which began operating during Friday lunchtimes last year on a patch of North Franklin Street between Kennedy Boulevard and Madison Street, will expand when it opens for its second year at 10 a.m. Friday.
Ferrechia has signed 55 vendors, up from last year's total of 38. The market also will grow in geographical size, going north into the 500 block of Franklin Street and criss-crossing along the 400 and 500 blocks of Madison Street.
Ferrecchia made the proposal to expand the market's size during the summer so that more vendors and seating could be added. A survey taken in May during the market's last weeks indicated visitors wanted more variety, more room to move, and more organic produce and food.
Before submitting the plan to the Downtown Partnership, Ferrecchia talked with businesses to make sure they approved of putting tents in front of their storefronts. She assured restaurants on North Franklin Street that no food tents would be placed outside their eateries.
"I thought they were going to hate us," she said. "They said, 'Our business plummeted when the market left.' I was really surprised. They're excited to have us back."
To capitalize on time-rushed, lunch-hour shoppers, this year's market will offer more food vendors, including homemade crab cakes, English pies and Belgian waffles.
Mother's Organics returns for a second year and will bring organic hummus, plants and herbs from Sweetwater Organic Community Farm. Hydroponic produce grown by the Park Family in Plant City will be among the new additions.
"We can't go too big, but we want to offer greater variety," said Paul Ayres, the Partnership's marketing and business development director. "It's a Friday thing that is meant to be leisurely, but people only have 60 minutes for lunch, so we want to offer the vendors that they're looking for."
Two more ideas being considered for the first of the year include inviting downtown restaurants to shop for produce before the market opens and expanding to Sundays as well. The goal is to eventually have the Friday market become a gateway to the Sunday market.
"That's a totally different ballgame," Ayres said. Sunday is "a leisure market that goes after the church crowds and the family crowds. The Friday market is for office [workers] and downtown residents."
Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324.
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