Joel Aschbrenner

jaschbrenn@dmreg.com

Hoping to build on the success of Des Moines’ Downtown Farmers' Market and revitalize an aging shopping center, a coalition of business and civic leaders want to build a year-round market in Kaleidoscope at the Hub.

Many questions remain unanswered, but backers say they envision a market where people can shop for produce, buy locally-sourced meat from a butcher, grab a glass of wine and take a cooking class.

“Slow food, knowing where your food comes from is a movement that we need to capitalize on,” said Tim Leach, senior vice president of downtown development for the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

A group including The Partnership, Polk County, the city of Des Moines and Iowa State University are currently conducting a study on the viability of a year-round downtown market. The group has been working quietly behind the scenes for more than a year, but the plan came to light Thursday as part of a public forum on downtown development.

Courtney Long, a design fellow at Iowa State University’s Community Design Lab, has been working on the project for about three years. She told The Register a year-round market would ideally have several components:

Space for farmers and vendors to sell produce and other goods.

Anchor tenants such as restaurants, coffee shops and butchers.

Space to grow food, possibly on the roof or even up the sides of the building.

Classroom space for teaching about food and farming.

A professional kitchen available for rent.

Event space.

Whether the idea can become a reality should come into focus next year. ISU has asked developers and market operators to express their interest in the project by the spring. The feasibility study and a design should also be finished in early 2017.

“Hopefully, we will know in the late spring if we are moving forward and we can start fundraising and grant writing,” Long said.

If all goes to plan, construction could start as early as next fall, she said.

But funding is still a question mark. Backers have not yet determined who would pay to renovate the 91,000-square-foot building or what would happen to the existing tenants. More than a dozen restaurants and shops catering almost exclusively to lunch crowds currently occupy the building.

EMC Insurance Cos., which owns the Kaleidoscope, has been part of the market discussions, Leach said.

Supporters of the project have visited indoor markets around the country looking for inspiration.

Zack Mannheimer, who led the effort to build the new Des Moines Social Club, is also working indoor market plans. He said the goal is to make it easier for people to eat locally sourced food and have a better connection with agriculture.

Mannheimer, who now works for Iowa Business Growth, said the indoor market should be closed when the Downtown Farmers’ Market is operating.

“The goal is to compliment what the current farmers market is doing,” he said.

A year-round farmers market was tried years ago in the Sherman Hill building now occupied by Gateway Market, a more traditional grocery store. Backers of the new plan say a market can succeed because more people have moved downtown and Kaleidoscope is more centrally located.

Talk of remaking Kaleidoscope comes as the city works on a project to overhaul Walnut Street, in hopes of making it a lively retail corridor. Leach said a public market would be a huge step toward bringing more people to the street.

“I think it will be a great way to compliment the investment,” he said. “It is going to be a huge hit on Walnut Street.”

