James Beard Public Market Opens in Downtown Portland in 2026

After more than 20 years of will-they, won’t-they, the James Beard Public Market, a long anticipated market hall in the style of Seattle’s Pike Place Market, has nailed down a location and opening date. At a press conference Monday, October 28, Historic Portland Public Market Foundation executive director Jessica Elkan announced that the food hall would open in downtown Portland’s Selling Building, less than a block from Pioneer Square, within the next two years.

The James Beard Public Market will house an estimated 40 businesses, including a teaching kitchen, bakery, fishmonger, butcher shop, cheese shop, and bookstore, along with local farm stands and restaurants. The market will open in phases, first welcoming Portlanders in fall 2025 with the intent to complete the project by fall 2026.

Plans and proposals for the James Beard Public Market have circulated among Portland culinary leaders and local politicians for decades. In the early 1990s, food writer Heidi Yorkshire drafted a proposal for a public food and beverage market, which she brought to Oregon restaurateur and political figure Ron Paul. Paul became the main champion of the project, founding the Historic Portland Public Market Foundation in 2005.

What followed was years of stymied efforts to secure a location. Back in 2012, Multnomah County approved the sale of four downtown Portland blocks for the future market, a stylishly designed building featuring restaurants, event spaces, and a cooking school. That project fizzled, and the lots now host the seasonal Portland Winter Ice Rink. Paul died in 2015 before seeing his vision completed.

In October 2023, Elkan took over as executive director, bringing with her more than a decade of experience in community-centered nonprofits: She worked as director for both the unhoused youth outreach program New Avenues for Youth and the domestic violence resource center Raphael House of Portland. Enlisting the help of restaurateurs, mayor Ted Wheeler, and private organizations including OCF Joseph E. Weston Public Foundation and the Schlesinger Family, Elkan was able to announce the market’s new locale and timeline a year after joining the cause.

At the October press conference, Mayor Wheeler likened the project, begrudgingly, to Pike Place Market. With 38,140 square feet over three floors, including a rooftop events space, the James Beard Public Market is intended as “Portland’s Kitchen,” less than a block from “Portland’s Living Room.”

The foundation is still in the process of procuring $3 million for the project, having secured $1.5 million so far. Formerly home to Rite Aid and a Payless, the building is over 100 years old, and much of the original old growth timber will be restored and preserved. A team of architectural and construction firms are partnering on the project, including COLAB Architecture, Grummel Engineering, and Hoffman Construction.

Mayor Wheeler believes the forthcoming market will “create numerous jobs, stimulate economic growth, and position itself as a vibrant, year-round destination.” But it will also serve to bring home “Portland’s culinary son,” as Elkan refers to James Beard. While he’s probably best known for the food and beverage foundation created in his honor, the eponymous Beard called the City of Roses home first. Born in Portland in 1903, Beard fell in love with food and cooking in Portland and along the Oregon Coast. He carried that love with him his whole life, through his cooking shows, classes, and cookbooks. Next year, the marketplace will hopefully help restore his connection to his hometown.