Revitalization of the wholesale food Union Market in DC to a consumer focus

Was a major project I was involved in from a grassroots perspective, in the face of an urban renewal focused effort by Ward 5 interests (bowling alley, etc.).  See "Retail planning and the Florida Market" [2009].  I'm reminded because the Washington Post had an article over the weekend about remaining wholesalers ("The last wholesalers of Union Market"), and a couple months ago there was an article about the last original vendor in the DC Farmers Market selling out ("Soko Butcher Shop Takes Over Historic Harvey’s in Union Market," Eater).

Photo: Craig Hudson, Washington Post.

Since then it has been massively revitalized, beyond anything I could imagine.  Mixing apartments and hotels, with food counters and restaurants, with a marked shift to prepared foods.

With the broadening and upscaling of the range of stores and restaurants ("All the places to eat and drink at Union Market" and "D.C.’s Minetta Tavern is an alluring chip off the old block in N.Y.," Post), you could argue that "gentrification of the market" isn't any different than urban renewal.

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Produce vendor Joe Giordano shown in a 1993 Inquirer Magazine feature about peaches. Michael Bryant / Staff Photographer

Cf "A landmark food business in the Italian Market has closed after a century," Philadelphia Inquirer, which discusses vacancies in a similar market there, Italian Market.  

The produce business has changed with competition from supermarkets and other retailers, of course, but more recently has suffered with the rise of delivery, said John Giordano, 64, who started working in the store at age 5 when he got home from kindergarten.

“Our business has moved into wholesale — pizza places, restaurants, and everything like that,” Giordano said Saturday, as he and workers cleaned out the property, setting out boxes of bric-a-brac salvaged from an upstairs apartment to offer to passersby. The garage doors were rolled down, unheard-of on a Saturday.

Revitalization Lessons.  In terms of Italian Market as a whole, it's proof to maintain it as best as possible, you need a manager.  In Union Market, that manager became Edens Realty which bought out one property holder with a preponderance of parcels, leaving Edens with the critical mass necessary to make significant change ("Two years in, Union Market thrives," Post, "Vendor's Game: Meet the Chef Behind Union Market," Washington City Paper).