STOCKTON — A few days before the Stockmarket debuted 16 months ago on a forsaken corner in the long-dormant core of the city, co-founder Amy Sieffert said one of her goals was to play a role in downtown’s revitalization.

“We’re hoping to show everyone what Stockton has to offer,” Sieffert said in late April 2015. “It just takes a few people planting these seeds and then things will start happening.”

Since then, the public Stockmarkets — featuring the wares of local creative entrepreneurs — have increased in frequency from quarterly to monthly gatherings at the intersection of Weber Avenue and Stanislaus Street.

But those days are done. Sieffert announced recently that beginning Saturday, the monthly Stockmarkets will be held on the Miracle Mile between Pine and Castle streets on Pacific Avenue.

The street will close to traffic from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, and cars will be replaced by musicians, artists, food and drink, and vendors selling items ranging from local honey to woodworking.

“We feel it’s the best move for our market right now because the move to the Miracle Mile is going to bring a huge influx of foot traffic, it’s centrally located, and it’s already in a district where there are local creative small businesses and restaurants,” Sieffert said last week.

“We feel the foot traffic is going to help the market grow and help our vendors grow. More foot traffic means more sales for vendors. That’s why the Stockmarket was created: to be a platform and market for local businesses.”

Reactions have been predictably varied:

• Cindi Fargo, director of the Downtown Stockton Alliance: “It is somewhat disappointing in that we saw them as one of the new attractions of downtown and one of the parts of the downtown rehabilitation. Would we have preferred they stay in downtown? Of course. But we’re not in control of that at all. It was a privilege to contribute to their success.”

• Mimi Nguyen, director of the Miracle Mile Improvement District: “I reached out to the Stockmarket to partner with us (in June) to be in conversations for (2017). In those conversations we realized it could be a really good fit.”

And instead of next year, the Stockmarket move became immediate.

• David Garcia of Ten Space, the development firm that owns the facility where Stockmarket was born and raised: “Stockmarket was a good entry-level event for downtown. We are surprised they would want to leave downtown, but we have a lot of great momentum downtown and will continue pushing forward with a lot of businesses and events that want to be downtown.”

Sieffert acknowledged last week that Ten Space began charging rent for the downtown Stockmarket space in 2016 after providing the spot for free last year. She said the rental fee is only a small part of the reason for the change. She also said the fear of a small number of people who are “afraid” to venture downtown played a minimal role.

The prime reason for the change, Sieffert said, was the belief that Stockmarket’s crowds will grow at the new location. Sieffert said she is hoping attendance will increase this week from about 2,000 at the last Stockmarket to 2,500 on Saturday. She did acknowledge that the death one year ago of Ten Space executive Tim Egkan affected the downtown arrangement.

Egkan was married to Katie Macrae, Sieffert’s Stockmarket co-founder. Sieffert said that when Macrae originally brought the Stockmarket concept to her husband, Egkan told her, “ ‘I have a place,’ and that was the place. It was an empty building in disrepair. It was a collaborative effort.”

But after Egkan’s still-unsolved murder, Sieffert said, “Our relationship changed with Ten Space.” She declined to elaborate.

Garcia also shied away from providing more detail.

“Just like anyone who comes downtown, we put our full support behind Stockmarket,” Garcia said. “We will continue to do that for anyone who truly believes in downtown Stockton.”

Sieffert said she also believes in downtown.

“We’re not pulling up roots and turning our backs on downtown,” Sieffert said. “We still plan to do other events downtown. We still go down there all the time and fully support all the small businesses that are operating downtown and continuing to open.

“We still love downtown.”

— Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or rphillips@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/phillipsblog and on Twitter @rphillipsblog.