The Redding Public Market opened about a month ago. Here’s how it’s going

The Redding Public Market officially opened at the end of last month, and it’s been a hit ever since. 

The public market is a concept that was years in the making. It’s located in downtown Redding and has a variety of restaurants, bars and shops located in a modern, vibrant communal atmosphere. Allen Knott, CEO of K2 Development Companies — which owns the venue and led the project — said more than 2,000 people have been coming to the market daily, and that the opening has been very exciting for the collaborators behind it. 

“I think a lot of people move to Redding to be a part of a community,” Knott said. “The public market really gives a platform for people in the community to get together.” 

He added that the market has made downtown Redding busier than ever, and that even nearby local businesses report seeing significant increases in customers. Erin Ross, general manager of the public market, said the existing downtown businesses have long been working to reimagine this area of Redding, and “now we have something that is truly a gathering place.” 

“Being that the public market is truly in the heart of our downtown and in the heart of the Redding cultural district,” Ross said, “having something of this impact is more likely to serve as a catalyst and hopefully attract new and more investment into our downtown.”

How did the public market come about? 

After visiting several public markets along the West Coast with his wife, including the Oxbow Public Market in Napa Valley and the Ferry Building in San Francisco, Knott wondered if a public market would work well in Redding. 

K2 Development had purchased a property that housed Dicker’s Department Store back in 2014, and the company was still unsure as to how exactly it wanted to utilize some of the downstairs space. The store was demolished in 2018, and new infrastructure at the space, including housing in the upper levels, was completed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Knott said local businesses had been hit hard by the pandemic, and building a whole new restaurant in part of the vast first-floor space left behind by Dickers would’ve been too expensive to take on. Having seen the popularity of public markets across the country, he thought something like that — which combines the risk of start-up costs across multiple businesses — might be more doable. He approached Steve Carlin, the founder and managing partner of the Oxbow Public Market, to discuss how feasible a public market would be in Redding. 

Carlin advised Knott to move forward with the idea and gave him a formula for how to establish a successful public market: Focus on the local community and house a diverse group of businesses, including a bakery, restaurants, bars, a grocery and retail stores. 

K2 Development hired a consulting firm to help determine which specific businesses to invite to join the market. Knott said this was a difficult part of the process, especially after businesses had just been hit by the pandemic. 

“Going to these operators and asking them to go on a journey of putting their business into a market that they personally have never worked in was probably the biggest challenge,” Knott said, “to get folks on board and have them be a part of putting their business and their personal investment into something that they also didn’t have experience with.”

The Redding Public Market opened to the public at the end of November, five years after apartments opened in the same building. Knott said with all the “doom and gloom” in the world, it’s been refreshing to see the community be so excited about the space. 

“I’m most proud of the community’s acceptance of the public market as a platform for everyone to enjoy and create positive experiences with each other and positive experiences with Redding,” he said. 

Public Market General Manager Ross said Redding’s market stands out from others because it’s “authentically local.”

“There’s nobody in this market that comes from a big city somewhere else, and also the ownership is locally born and raised, so it’s truly a homegrown recipe that we have here,” she said. “[The public market] should reflect the local flavor of the community, and I think we’ve really been able to do that.” 

Ross said since the market’s opening, the facility has been packed almost every hour it’s open, and she often sees repeat customers. She added that the market will have an event calendar sometime in the future, which will include live music, trivia nights, collaborations between the market’s businesses, outside vendors, pop-up events and more.

See more photos of the Redding Public Market below.

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