the common market
What is it?
The Common Market will be a 23,000 square foot year-round multi-vendor public market opening in Summer 2020 in the heart of the historic Southeast Greyhound Building at 101 W. Loudon, on the corner of N. Limestone and Loudon Avenue. The Common Market will be for, by, and about our neighbors.
The Common Market will provide a wide range of functions: retail space for 60 vendors, 8 food vendors, event space for cultural and community events, play space including an indoor playground - all of this will make The Common Market a community social and cultural hub.
The Common Market will be an extension of The Night Market, a monthly outdoor pop-up market that has put dozens of vendors in front of thousands of visitors each month. Over 6 years, The Night Market has created over $1.1M in direct economic impact for our neighbors.
With The Night Market as the 1st step toward starting and growing a business, The Common Market will be a 2nd stepping stone for neighborhood entrepreneurs to grow their business. The Common Market will allow small businesses to grow while minimizing risk by providing affordable rents and opportunities for incremental growth, in a beautiful, historic, climate-controlled space with shared and maintained bathrooms and seating facilities.
This unique collection of businesses, programming & activities will create much more traffic than any one business would on its own, and will provide something for everyone, giving many reasons for customers to return again and again, to make this place a part of their daily life.
right now
Currently, NoLi CDC has signed lease with Needham Properties, the owner and developer of 101 W. Loudon, to be a major tenant of the project once the redevelopment is complete, to operate the Common Market (CM) as a 23,000 square foot multi-vendor public market, which will also feature cultural events and other programming. The projected completion date and subsequent Common Market opening date projected to be in Summer 2020.
Between now and then, NoLi CDC will work with neighbors to brand, advertise, secure tenants, design and build the kiosks, and much more. The Common Market aspires to be a hub of community interaction and opportunity, with access to local, affordable, healthy products created and maintained by a community-led and community-owned process and structure.
We know that development often signals change, and for many of our neighbors, nothing good ever comes from change. Our goal with this project is to transform that (rightful) fear of change into an understanding through experience that change can and should benefit our neighbors - by, for, and about our neighbors.
If you are interested in getting involved in any way, or learning more, please contact Kris Nonn at [email protected].
Overview
For the past decade, the historic Southeastern Greyhound Line building at the corner of Lime and Loudon has sat vacant. With the Common Market, we hope to change that.
Working with partners throughout the community, Bluegrass Farm to Table principally among them, we hope to rehabilitate the historic SE Greyhound Line Building into a year-round, permanent, multi-vendor public market. We also want the market to serve as an aggregation and processing hub for Central Kentucky farmers to distribute their produce, and a space for Northside Residents to grow new businesses.
We recognize that the acquisition and construction costs of the market are immense. However, in 2015, we were given the enormous honor of being awarded $550,000 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to help get the project off the ground. While this is just the beginning, we believe this important investment in the project will open up additional funding sources.
Listening and planning
In late 2015, the North Limestone CDC worked with the University of Kentucky's Community Innovation Lab to gather community priorities about Economic Opportunities in the North Limestone Neighborhood through a community planning process. The community analysis focused on three grant areas – community entrepreneurship, neighborhood services and food access within the North Limestone Corridor. As such, macro themes will be drawn from these three areas.
Planning process
Faculty from the Community Innovation Lab assumed the role of “organizer” during the process, and took the approach of working with neighborhood leaders to facilitate the process. Their analysis specifically focused on the three objectives outlined in the grant:
Community Entrepreneurship
Neighborhood Services
Food Access
The following is an outline of the process:
Step 1: Faculty met with community leaders, who specialized in each grant objective area to develop research questions for the broader community.
Step 2: Community leaders were asked to identify/recommend other community members to be invited as community researchers.
Step 3: Faculty met with identified community members to collect their insight regarding the grant as well as train them in the research process - establishing them as community researchers.
Step 4: Community researchers recruited community members to attend one of two community meetings.
Step 5: Community member insight was collected during two community meetings, one was held at the Plantory and one held at Embrace Church. Meetings were facilitated in both Spanish and English by community researchers.
Step 6: Community input was compiled and analyzed by faculty from the Community Innovation Lab.
Findings
The areas of interest for this community analysis included community entrepreneurship, food access and neighborhood services as perceived by community members of the North Limestone Corridor. As such, conclusions will be presented according to interest area.
Entrepreneurship
Overall, community members believed local entrepreneurship growth within the North Limestone Corridor to be realistic, if certain support mechanisms were in place. More concrete funding sources, additional education and effective communication (including multilingual dialogue) were identified as important when starting new businesses. While some businesses were identified as ready and appropriate for expansion, there were several new ventures proposed that could be developed in the area. Unfortunately, noted challenges of starting a business in this area proved to be nearly as numerous as the potential new ventures. Challenges were noted regarding necessary funding, a need for education, and limited parking and retail space. But perhaps one of the most salient challenges was the perception the North Limestone Corridor was unsafe, and that crime could ultimately discourage business traffic. Each of these issues is important to note, but the challenges for business development within the area are not insurmountable.
Food Security
Overall, community opinion about food security in the North Limestone Corridor was dominated by the perception that it is a “food desert”. Community members noted difficulties when trying to identify and purchase fresh, healthy food within the area. Perhaps the most significant challenge noted was financial resources; unfortunately, many community members expressed they are dealing with a “perfect storm” – the heightened cost of healthy food in tandem with the limited income of many residents. This diminished opportunity to purchase fresh food is compounded by easily accessible fast food and competitive stores in the periphery. There are, however, several novel, unique programs in the area that are encouraging increased healthy food access. This movement could be built upon with increased buy-in/resources from the city, which could assist in significantly changing local food access, ultimately improving the local diet.
The future vision for food access in the North Limestone Corridor was varied, with several creative ideas coming to the forefront. Promoting local markets and hosting more sites for farmers markets in the North Limestone area were brought up as ideas for expanding food access. Encouraging expansion of markets in this capacity would make food access more direct for community members and would provide a foundation for healthier eating in the neighborhood. The challenge with the diversity of ideas presented was there was no one “vision” for the future – which makes community action toward one specific idea or goal in improving food access challenging. Still, if done right, these diverse ideas could be looked upon as exciting opportunities, not limiting challenges.
Neighborhood Services
Community members identified local community parks, restaurants and retail businesses as neighborhood services most frequented by the community. Both education and communication were identified as necessary for effective utilization of the services provided. Individually, community members were aware of selective services within the area; however, very few had a comprehensive understanding of neighborhood services provided. Citizen awareness is exasperated by a lack of effective communication (including multilingual) throughout the area. To address this, researchers suggest exploring and potentially implementing various diverse methods of communication.
You can find a link to the full report and findings here.