Introduction

The citizens of Cleveland for many years have shown considerable interest in publicly owned retail food markets and have maintained and patronized them fairly well. During the past several decades, many public and private groups had expressed an interest in rebuilding, modernizing, and relocating Central Market before it was destroyed by fire in December 1949.

City officials and private groups, for sometime past, recognized that Central Market did not adequately serve its purpose as a retail food market. The Municipal Committee of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the civic group of Western Reserve University made an independent study of the market in 1914. These two groups concluded that a new market house was needed, and that such a market should be relocated in the downtown area. Ten years later, in July 1924, the Municipal Research Bureau of Cleveland made a study of the city-owned retail markets. This committee recommended that Central Market be continued in operation until the new railroad terminal building was completed, after which careful consideration should be given to the selection of a new site for the market.

In 1944 a special committee of the City Council was set up to give consideration to improvements in city-owned retail markets. As a result of the action of this committee, a special election was held in 1946, in which voters of the city of Cleveland approved, among other proposals, a bond issue in the amount of $1,350,000 specifically earmarked for retail market house construction and repairs. Of the total approved by the voters, $1,000,000 was authorized for the construction of a new market house to replace Central Market, with the stipulation that the market should be self-liquidating. The remaining $350,000 was to be spent on rehabilitation of the West Side Market.

A new express highway system proposed for Cleveland is designed to pass through Central Market. The fact that Central Market would be razed in the development of the new highway was an additional factor in the evaluation of the cost of and need for a facility to replace it.

In December 1946 Mayor Thomas A. Burke requested the Marketing and Facilities Research Branch^[1] of the Production and Marketing Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, to make a survey of Central Market to determine the public need for a new market and whether one, if built, could be made self-liquidating. The Department of Rural Economics of Ohio State University also was invited to participate in the study. In February 1947 representatives of the Marketing and Facilities Research Branch and Professor C. W. Hauck of Ohio State University met in Cleveland with the Mayor’s Market Study Committee end representatives of interested city departments. At this meeting it was agreed that the survey should be made for the purpose of determining: (1) The need for a new city-owned retail food market, (2) the kind and size of market that should be built, (3) where the market should be located, (4) how much money would be needed to develop the market, and (5) whether the market could be made self-liquidating.

A preliminary report of the findings was made to representatives of various departments of the city of Cleveland, including the City Planning Board on October 27, 1947. At this meeting, a tentative plan was presented showing how a new central market might be constructed on property lying between the Sheriff Street Cold Storage Warehouse and the Widlar Company, and between Bolivar Road and what is known as the “Rope Walk.” It was also shown that a market in this area probably could be liquidated from rentals received from tenants and from parking spaces to be included in the market, provided: (1) The city could amortize its investment over a period of from 30 to 40 years, (2) the city could operate a parking lot for revenue in connection with the market, and (3) the present number of tenants could be kept operating in the new facility.

To consider these problems further, the authors met in May 1948 with officials of the city. At that time it was found that under laws of the State of Ohio, the city could not operate a parking lot but that such facilities would have to be leased to a private operator. Moreover, it was stated that the city could not issue bonds or otherwise obligate its revenue for more than 25 years for the building of a retail market. This report has been prepared to aid the city officials in giving further consideration to the question as to whether a new market could be constructed and made self-liquidating, as approved by the voters.^[2]