The MarketFront addition to Seattle's Pike Place Market debuted on June 29, 2017. The $74 million project provides 30,000 square feet of new public space, including a plaza and a deck with jaw-dropping views of the Olympic Mountains, Mount Rainier, and Puget Sound that promise to steal some of the thunder from the market's famous salmon-throwing fishmongers. The project also adds three public art installations, such as Northwest Microcosm, a glittering, colorful trio of mosaic murals depicting the bounty of the Pacific Northwest that kicked off the project.
The new addition also houses a craft brewery, a chocolatier, and two restaurants serving gourmet fare.
The plaza houses 47 new vendor spaces for farmers and craftspeople beneath an all-weather canopy with roll-up doors. In addition, MarketFront will eventually showcase four new businesses with on-site production of food and beverages, plus spaces for the public to enjoy them. Already open are Old Stove Brewing Company, a 16-tap pub decorated with vintage beer signs and cans; small-batch, bean-to-bar chocolate maker indi chocolate, which also offers classes and a chocolate cafe; and a biscuits-and-sandwiches joint called Honest Biscuits. A seafood restaurant, Little Fish, is slated to open sometime in 2019.
Founded in 1907 and operating in a nine-acre historic district, Pike Place Market is one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in the country. For all its contemporary architectural flair, MarketFront represents a throwback for the market. The expansion returns farmers and producers to a site that originally was developed for them in the 1920s. It was long a part of the market until it burned to the ground and was replaced by a parking lot in 1974.