The drive to build a world-class public market in Portland will be dead in a matter of months unless substantial progress is made, said Fred Granum, director of the James Beard Public Market project.

That declaration came just days after state lawmakers gave Granum’s initiative a much-needed lifeline of $400,000, the latest injection of taxpayer money to a project that has stumbled in recent years.

All the while, Granum has remained a persistent salesman, his pitch well-honed and confidence sky-high.

Imagine, he told a panel of state lawmakers in April, what the public market could be: a world class, job-creating food hall that draws more than 1 million visitors a year.

“There’s nothing like it in the state and there never has been,” Granum testified.

Lawmakers were unsure. Why, they asked, has this project, more than a decade in the making, not come to fruition? Why had a $250,000 grant issued by the state in 2013 not meant success?

“I feel like this is déjà vu,” Rep. Caddy McKeown, a Democrat from Coos Bay, remarked during Granum’s presentation.

Granum answered that the project had not been without its challenges but is still worth pursuing for the good of Oregon.

“This has been a challenge, I will be very candid, in putting all the ducks in a row to have the land at the right time to create a public market,” Granum testified. “But we do know now what we’re doing.”

Members of the committee, which controls business and labor policy, did not hold a vote on Granum’s request for money. But last week, in one of the final bills approved before adjournment, he got another shot.

That legislation, known as the “Christmas tree” bill because it is packed with millions in pork spending sought by legislators, included the $400,000 Granum told lawmakers would get the public market project off the ground. It is intended for feasibility studies, he said.

Lawmakers approved the outlay despite earlier complaints they were facing a “tight” budget. All told, taxpayers have pumped at least $962,000 into the public market project, with $312,000 coming from the city of Portland under mayors Charlie Hales and Ted Wheeler.

Rep. Christine Drazan, a Republican from Canby who sits on the business committee, said she was disappointed but unsurprised to see the public market get funded at the last moment. She still has concerns about the project’s viability and criticized the “loose” standards by which pet projects receive public funds in the Christmas tree bill.

Still, few if any dispute that a massive food hall would be a boon to Portland’s dining scene, add jobs to the statewide economy and provide a public service. Plans for the James Beard Public Market include classrooms where residents would be taught healthy cooking skills and wellness tips. The market would be a gathering space and business opportunity for farmers and chefs from many cultures and continents.

But nearly all public markets, such as Pike Place in Seattle or Granville Island in British Columbia, are government-owned or operated. Not so for the James Beard concept, which envisions a privately-owned, self-sustaining market that gets to groundbreaking with the help of government and private donors. It is named for Beard, who was a prominent chef and cookbook author from Portland.

In an interview, Granum said his organization has mounted a final push to raise the $1.2 million necessary to pay for design and feasibility studies that examine placing the market on land near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry on the Willamette River in Portland’s industrial Central Eastside.

That is the fifth location sought by the project, which had previously bet big on developing at the west end of the Morrison Bridge in downtown Portland. More than $276,000 spent preparing the market for that site went up in smoke in 2016, when it became apparent pedestrian access would be curtailed by the large bridge on-ramps, and which officials declined to reconstruct.

Since then, fundraising by the foundation Granum operates to develop the market has plummeted, according to financial documents reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Granum, an attorney and former head of the Portland State University Foundation, also took a $10,000 pay cut.

All that was intentional, he said, because the foundation did not want to fundraise without a site to promote, even though the public market announced the spot near OMSI as a possible site at the same time the Morrison Bridge plan fell through.

“We have not been aggressively looking to fundraise because we didn’t have a story to tell,” Granum said. The pay cut was necessary “to keep the dream alive.”

It’s not lost on Granum that the project has dragged on. “Skeptics are out there, and we recognize that, and we do not hide from that,” he said. “Skepticism is justified at this stage.”

He said he’s still hopeful about the 18-acre OMSI site, which the museum is looking to develop into the Willamette River’s premier east bank destination. Granum said that as a prospective tenant, the foundation is having “substantive” conversations with OMSI and its developer, the firm Gerding Edlen, but has no formal relationship with either.

“We’re not married. We’re not even engaged. But we’re certainly dating,” Granum said of his foundation’s relationship with the museum.

A museum spokesman, John Farmer, said its leaders have held no serious conversations with prospective tenants and the museum “has not committed to anything or anybody.”

Fundraising for the potential market has been on the upswing since backers announced OMSI property as a possible location three years ago. Granum said his foundation has raised almost $500,000 toward exploring the museum site, though it had raised $861,000 in 2015 alone, when the downtown location was still seen as achievable.

Today, the project is at a turning point. With funds from the city, state and private donors, it has money to conduct the necessary feasibility studies.

All that remains are the results. If they come back negative, the project’s over, Granum said.

“If we get all the right answers, we’ll be very public about the vision,” he said. “If we don’t, we’ll quietly go away.”

Ever the bullish salesman, Granum is confident that won’t be the case: “In the same breath I’ll tell you I have every expectation this will be a resounding success.”

Substantial hurdles remain even if the project is deemed feasible.

Granum told lawmakers the public market is searching for “a vertical partner” to invest in constructing “probably an additional 15 to 20 floors” on top of its space, though OMSI is not zoned for buildings that tall. In the interview, Granum said he intends for construction to be financed debt-free, meaning he needs to find deep-pocketed cash backers.

In all, he said the project may cost $30 million, not counting the potential floors above. He told lawmakers he expects groundbreaking to begin in 2021.

-- Gordon R. Friedman

GFriedman@Oregonian.com

Reporting contributed by staff writers Elliot Njus and Brad Schmidt.