Exploring Anchorage’s Future: A Tour of the Market Project

Last week, I attended Scaling Up: What to Know Before You Expand, a small business forum hosted by the Alaska SBDC at the Alaska Experience Theater. The event brought together entrepreneurs, advisors, and investors to share practical insights about growing a business in Alaska.

The program opened with Kelly Ann Cavaretta, Seward Business Advisor and owner of Salted Roots and the Flamingo Cocktail Lounge, who shared her personal “expansion story.” Following her remarks, Ginny Grabowski, Anchorage Business Advisor with the Alaska SBDC, moderated a panel featuring:

• Joe Dugan – Investor/President, Alaska Architectural Lighting

• Rachel Pennington – Co-owner/Manager, Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop and K Street Market

• Elissa Brown – Co-founder/Owner, Wild Scoops

• Dunbar Anders – Loan Officer, Alaska Growth Capital
  

The folk pictured above talked about working "in" the business vs. working "on" the business, empowering your employees, investing in things that will make our community better and then stay out of the way, cash burn, willingness to pivot when things aren't working, the value of owning real estate, the time it takes to achieve your goals, and more! It was both illuminating and inspiring to listen to the folks who are responsible for some of Anchorage's most well-known and well-regarded businesses (Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop, Wild Scoops, Local Grown Restaurants, & Alaska Growth Capital).

After the panel, Mark Begich and his business partner invited us on a guided tour of the Market Project, an ambitious downtown revitalization effort in the former Post Office Mall.

Walking through the stripped-down hallways and wide-open floors, it was easy to imagine the transformation that lies ahead. The developers described how the project will reinvent the 88,000-square-foot building into a three-level hub of life and commerce:

• Ground floor: Anchor retail space with the promise of a grocery store, pharmacy, and the Biscutclub.

• Second level: A dynamic market hall for food stalls, pop-up shops, local makers, and long-time tenants.

• Top floor: 12 (2-bed 1-Bath) residential condominiums and 3 (1-Bed 1-Bath) residential condominiums with open layouts and sweeping windows to bring new energy downtown.

The design also includes indoor alleys, gathering zones, and event space, moving away from the old mall format and toward a lively marketplace where people can meet, shop, and connect.

Growing up with a father who is an electrician and working as a commercial real estate broker, I love touring projects like this! The mix of raw construction and bold imagination, beams, wires, and open floors, is very cool to see, a snapshot in time of a work in progress. The vision painted for us was unmistakably hopeful: a neighborhood within a building that will draw people to live, shop, eat, and gather in the heart of Anchorage.

Leaving the event, I felt energized. Mark and his team are going for it, and I've adopted Hugh's admiration for people who are "going for it". If you would like to go for it and be a feature tenant in this building, now is the time to act! Give me a ring, and we can get the ball rolling. Lease space is filling up fast.

-Ryan