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Downtown sold on market

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By JEFF HOUCK

jhouck@tampatrib.com

Published: May 22, 2009

TAMPA - Organizers of the Tampa Downtown Market, which just ended its inaugural season of offering specialty foods and goods on Fridays at Lykes Gaslight Square Park, say they plan to reopen in the fall with more booths.

Tiffany Ferrecchia, the market's operations manager, and Paul Ayres, the Tampa Downtown Partnership's marketing and business development director, are polling residents online about a possible expansion to Sundays. The market was modeled on operations Ferrecchia saw while living in Winter Park and Boston.

After being rained out for its grand opening Oct. 24, it launched at Franklin Street and Kennedy Boulevard on Halloween with 30 vendors handpicked by Ferrecchia from across the region. By the time the market closed for the summer last Friday, it had 41 vendors.

"We had some businesses downtown that were nervous or upset when we were starting up," Ferrecchia said. "At the end, though, several of them said, 'We're sad to see you go.'"

Ayres and Ferrecchia said they will propose to the city's parks and recreations department that the market be expanded to 50 vendors when it reopens Oct. 16. Ferrecchia said she learned several lessons during the inaugural year. One important one: The vendors are the draw, and the better they are, the more successful the market will be. She tried to select those who sold unique, local or environmentally friendly items that didn't duplicate what can be found in grocery stores.

"There are some who come only for the pasta lady or the cigar guy or the honey guy," she said.

Statistics from a survey of 166 respondents in January showed that the market attracted about 1,000 shoppers a week, some from beyond the downtown area, including visitors in town for conventions, Ayres said.

Participate in the survey at www.tampadowntownmarket.com.

Keyword: Stew, to see a map of local fresh markets on Jeff Houck's food blog, The Stew.

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