On Wednesday, January 14, 2015 another chapter in Pike Place Market history was made – the Pike Place Market Historical Commission approved the expansion of the Market in a vote 6-1.

For more than 40 years Pike Place Market staff, volunteers and consultants studied and designed the possibility of resurrecting a Market building on Western Avenue from years past. Out of the dozens of plans proposed over the years to grow the Market westward, last week the new design of the Pike Place MarketFront was approved in a landmark decision by the Pike Place Market Historical Commission (MHC). True to the Charter of Pike Place Market, the MarketFront will be more of the Market we love: more space for farmers and small businesses, 40 new units of low-income senior housing, new public art installations, and a Neighborhood Center to expand social services and meet the needs of our downtown community.

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In a fundraising effort led by the Pike Place Market Foundation, the MarketFront design includes donor recognition elements of Market Charms, Piggybank Hoofprints and Mosaic Art to honor donors to the the Pike Up! campaign. This is the first time in 30 years, since the popular tile campaign of the 1980s, when thousands of Market supporters have the opportunity to engrave a name into Market history, while helping to complete the final piece of Pike Place Market.

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More than a dozen community members spoke during the MHC public comment session, including a former commissioner, residents, merchants, craftspeople, Market Constituency members, Friends of the Market founders and longtime Market supporters, voicing support for the project. “The MarketFront design is a solution to an intricate and complex problem” more than 45 years in the making, said longtime Market supporter Peter Steinbrueck. Sara Patton, President of Friends of the Market, also spoke out in support of the project and particularly lauded the focus on providing low-income housing for seniors.

The design of the new MarketFront by Miller Hull Partnership (artist’s rendering pictured above) includes more than 30,000 square feet of open public space, 12,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, 305 parking spaces, 60 bicycle spaces, 47 units of Daystall vending space for farmers and craftspeople, 40 units of low-income housing for seniors, room for an on-site brewery and artisan purveyors, and a Neighborhood Center which will provide additional social services to the Market community.

Learn more about the MarketFront and write your name into Market history: PikeUp.org