Market report

I’m always interested in going behind the scenes to learn the details of how something operates. One of the great perks of journalism is finding opportunities to do just that.

The new Midtown Global Market, which opened earlier this summer, was a massive undertaking, part of a complete revamp the old Sears building on Lake Street in Minneapolis, which is, basically, a solid concrete building, each floor constructed to hold the weight of forklifts and tons of merchandise.

On the ground floor sits the Global Market, a collage of ethnic restaurants and markets. The project’s organizers are still filling spaces, in particular, they’d like to bring in another market. “We’ve got Middle Eastern, Latino and Asian markets, and we’re bringing in an Indian market,” said Jeff Alexander of H.R.I Consulting, and the primary designer of the market.

Alexander, when he took me on a tour in late May, appeared he could use a break. His fatigue was not of a man who was tired of his work, however, and he was quick to list off names of others who have contributed mightily to the project, including Mike Temali, executive director of the Neighborhood Development Center; Atum Azzahir of the Phillips/Powderhorn Cultural Wellness Center; African Development Center Executive Director Hussein Samatar; Ramon Leon, executive director of the Latino Economic Development Center, and many others my pen couldn’t keep up with.

“This team would meet through 2004, and Ramon (Leon) convinced me to drive to Mexico City with him.” There they went to every market they could find. “He filled my head with all these other markets and everything they did—good and bad—from wiring to drainage.”

And that’s a lot of the behind-the scenes stuff that fascinates me. Alexander led me down into the bowels of the building—which weren’t really the bowels, I suppose. It was also redone, and as spic and span as a new suburban McMansion. Down below there’s the walk-in coolers and freezers each food vendor can use to store their supplies, each the size of this editor’s humble condominium. In addition, they each have a dry storage unit. Also down below was a room housing the communications bank—each vendor has, if they need it, four phone lines and two data lines.

Alexander had to consider not just water supplies and electricity, but the specific needs for the different operating procedures for various organizations, including the United States Postal Service, which required its mail delivery boxes for each business be separate—and have a separate access—from any inter-building communication boxes. “Who would have thought of that?” Alexander said.

Alexander’s foodservice experience began in restaurants (he owns the El Burrito restaurants and Alexander’s). His design experience came with, well, experience. His father was a college professor in interior design, and they worked together to design his first restaurant, Alexander’s, for which they won a prize in the early 1980s in “Restaurant/Hotel Design” magazine.

“In the 1990s I started doing it more for people on the side,” he said. From there, word-of-mouth worked its magic. “That’s how it started.”

Alexander had worked with the various neighborhood and community organizations involved in the Global Market on other projects. When they gave him a call, he researched by visiting markets throughout the country, including Redding market in Philadelphia, Pike Place in Seattle, Granville in Madison. “I thought about it and presented a plan to the group, and voila. They liked it.”

Adding difficulty to the interior design were the massive, immovable, load-bearing, concrete columns planted throughout the space like the Roman Parthenon. “The key to the columns was the sightlines,” Alexander said. “I knew I was going to lose the diagonals.” So he made sure to have the sightline from Lake Street, and another main line looking through to the east and west ends of the space, and out the large, restored windows.

Bulkheads were installed above each stall, allowing each vendor to create a unique storefront. Gas, electrical and water channels were all designed for adaptability, each stall has it’s own breaker panel. And for those stalls cooking food, ventilation had to be designed—much of it going through the several concrete floors above containing condominiums.

There’s still work to be done, including filling a few more stalls. But, for me, anyway, it’s nice to see a developing market bringing together a broad array of cultures. It’s long overdue in the Twin Cities.

“We’ve kind of done the world here,” Alexander said. “(When it’s done), then I’ll go up North and lay down.”