A rendering released Sept. 11, 2018, of the proposed public market at the Port of Vancouver's Terminal 1, a 10-acre redevelopment site. (Graham Baba Architects via Port of Vancouver USA)

Portland-area foodies have long yearned for a throwback public market, where farmers and food producers could sell directly to customers year-round.

They could soon have one -- in Vancouver.

The Port of Vancouver is advancing a plan to build a public market on its 10-acre Terminal 1 site, just west of the Interstate Bridge. It's one piece of a broader redevelopment envisioned to include an AC Hotel by Marriott, an office building and four other mixed-use developments.

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A rendering released Sept. 11, 2018, of the proposed Terminal 1 redevelopment at a 10-acre site owned by the Port of Vancouver USA. (GreenWorks via Port of Vancouver USA)

Most of the sites would be leased or sold to other developers to build on, but the public market as its centerpiece is the port's own pet project, seen as both an economic boon to local businesses and a draw for locals and tourists.

"We see it as a really interesting opportunity to create some public amenities and to do something to that draws people down to the river," said project manager Jonathan Eder.

Though Seattle's Pike Place Market is probably the Northwest's best-known contemporary public market, Vancouver has modeled its proposal from the Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee, Washington, which opened in a former steel warehouse in 2013. That market was opened in partnership between a nonprofit, the city and the county port.

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The Port of Vancouver's Terminal 1 property, including the shuttered Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay, part of which now houses a restaurant. Private development at The Waterfront Vancouver is shown in the background. (Elliot Njus/Staff)

Vancouver's Terminal 1 was once the city's municipal docks. When the second span of the Interstate Bridge opened in 1958, the terminal was too close for marine traffic, and it eventually became the Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay. The hotel, a local mainstay, closed in 2015.

The public marketplace would look a lot like that original warehouse, which is still standing and has reopened as the restaurant Warehouse 23.

But that structure sits under what could one day be the landing of a replacement Interstate 5 bridge. Port officials instead plan to deconstruct the warehouse and reuse as much of the material as possible in building the new marketplace.

Port officials haven't determined how it would pay for the marketplace, but earlier this month, the port's commissioners voted to advance the project to determine a budget and identify possible funding sources.

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The Port of Portland's 10-acre Terminal 1 property is shown on August 21, 2018. The port plans to sell or lease individual parcels to private developers and is considering building a public market near the site of the shuttered Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay. (Elliot Njus/Staff)

Portland market enthusiasts have long sought to establish a James Beard Public Market, but boosters have struggled to identify a suitable location. One downtown site near the Morrison Bridgehead was abandoned in 2016; now, proponents of the project say the market could find a home in the redevelopment of land owned by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry or on the city-owned site of the central post office in the Pearl District.

But planning has only just begun for both of those sites, and the market's backers would need to raise significant funds for construction.

"We are at the mercy of the pace of those projects," said Fred Granum, the executive director of the Historic Portland Public Market Foundation. "We've got strong support and are ready to go, but we need to adhere to the pace of these major developments."

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A rendering released Sept. 11, 2018, of the proposed Terminal 1 redevelopment at a 10-acre site owned by the Port of Vancouver USA. (GreenWorks via Port of Vancouver USA)

Backers of the two public market proposals have talked, and they agree the two could coexist.

There's so much food, there's so much demand," Granum said. "There's plenty of room for both these markets."

As for which could come first? Neither have a definite timeline, though the Port of Vancouver's Eder said he believed the public market and associated development could be complete in 5 to 10 years.

"We don't feel like we're in a race," Granum said, adding, "Unless they've got a schedule different than what we've heard, I don't think they'd be open any sooner than we'd be planning."

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A rendering released Sept. 11, 2018, of the proposed public market at the Port of Vancouver's Terminal 1, a 10-acre redevelopment site. (Graham Baba Architects via Port of Vancouver USA)

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A rendering released Sept. 11, 2018, of the proposed public market at the Port of Vancouver's Terminal 1, a 10-acre redevelopment site. (Graham Baba Architects via Port of Vancouver USA)

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A rendering released Sept. 11, 2018, of the proposed public market at the Port of Vancouver's Terminal 1, a 10-acre redevelopment site. (Graham Baba Architects via Port of Vancouver USA)

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjus