Saturday, May 20, 2000
Findlay project gets $250,000 gift
5/3 Foundation donation comes before campaign
By Robert Anglen
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Fifth Third Foundation is putting up $250,000 for a fund-raising campaign for Findlay Market that hasn't even left the ground.
The foundation money will help pay to expand the main building in the state's oldest open-air market and for a planned Food Venture Center, which will give chef hopefuls a chance to develop and sell their recipes.
“We haven't officially started fund raising yet,” said Toni Selvey-Maddox, Cincinnati's acting economic development director. “(The donation) is a very significant thing. It's a good sign.”
That's because the city — which owns the market — is depending on private donations to complete the $15 million project.
Tom Jackson, market manager, said the city needs about $2.5 million for the main market house and $2.8 million for the venture center.
“We are doing this to help development in Over-the-Rhine,” he said. “Findlay Market is a beachhead in that effort.”
Renovation of the nine-block area began five years ago with a new parking lot, playground, a “farmer's market shed” and new retail
space. The next phase involves redoing the main market house and temporarily relocating vendors there into the shed.
Once complete, vendors will move back into the main market house, to be enclosed and widened with bigger aisles, more stalls and food counters. Retail space will be leased to restaurants and shops.
The city is also seeking federal and state grants to help bring housing into the area, which is bordered on the north by Findlay Street, south by Liberty Street, west by Central Parkway and East by Vine Street.
Although the venture center was not part of the original expansion plans, Mr. Jackson said it is important for the new businesses and vendors it will attract.
“We focused on the food venture center because we feel it will bring in more businesses,” said Stacie Yee, Fifth Third spokeswoman. “The economy gets better, the quality of life gets better. It just makes the city better.”
Of the $250,000, about $140,000 will go to the center and $100,000 to the market house. The remaining $10,000 will help the market's annual October celebration.
Ms. Yee called Findlay Market one of Cincinnati's “untapped resources,” for both its economic value and its history.
Mr. Jackson said the market expansion could begin this summer and be finished in 2002.
“Then it will be 150 years old,” he said.
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