Photograph By Shane Van Boxtel/Image Studios
Only three months into his role as vice president of operations for the Green Bay Public Market, Ron Franklin is focused on preparing the market for its spring 2025 debut.
Franklin is the first full-time hire of the public market, which is nearing its $12.5 million capital campaign goal — the majority of which has been raised through private philanthropy.
Franklin sat down with Insight to share his vision for the public market, which breaks ground this month, and why it’s poised to become an iconic food and event destination in the region.
Insight: You’ve mentioned that the Green Bay Public Market “is not a cookie‑cutter project.” What makes it unique?
Franklin: We’re taking a building from the ’80s and turning it from an office structure into a cool and inviting space. A lot of other public markets have been new construction, but we are taking the floor plan that we have for the 30,000-square-foot first level and designing it to fit the most number of tenants.
We want it to be inviting and eclectic — a place where people can walk in and have coffee here, then walk over and have a burger there, then pick up some fruits and vegetables to take home. We want people to have a unique experience, and creating that in an existing building is a lot harder than building it from scratch. When you have a fixed footprint already, you have to work within the confines of that fixed footprint. We’re not adding stories to it. We’re sticking with two stories. On the second level, we have an event space as well as a commercial kitchen and a demo kitchen. In the commercial kitchen, anyone who has a food-based business can rent that space to make their food items. In the event space we’re going to have regular programming, such as yoga classes and a weekly bag toss competition. There could be events like business conferences, presentations or parties. When it isn’t in use for an event, there is seating all around the upper rail so that people will be able to sit and overlook the entire first level.
What void do you think the public market fills in Green Bay?
There’s really not one central place where you can go and have the experience of food, both sit-down, grab-a-coffee-and-lunch food and also be able to get your fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh meat and fish, all at one place. This is elevated food. Most of it’s going to be local food. It’s just a different feel and different environment that isn’t anywhere else in the region. One of the things that I have mentioned to every single potential new tenant before they sign the lease is they need to go down to the Milwaukee Public Market to better understand the expectations of what it’s going to be. It’s not going to be straight walls where everything looks the same. We don’t want it to look like a strip mall. That’s boring. People think it’s just going to be a fast food market, and that’s not it. It is going to be a place where you’ll come back every week and see something different. Your fruits and vegetables vendor might have a completely different range of products because it’s a different growing season or they’re able to source something that wasn’t available before. You could have oysters and clams flown in from Boston, and then the following week you get Atlantic salmon. There’s always going to be different things for people to experience.
The goal is for the market to be completed by April 2025, when Green Bay hosts the NFL draft. What are you focusing on until then?
I’m working closely with the construction and architect teams to make sure that we’re on track, and then tenant recruitment. I meet with three or four potential tenants a week. I had my own businesses for as long as I can remember, but I found my niche in coaching small businesses and that’s what really drives what I do — helping small businesses achieve their dreams. We will have 20 to 30 businesses at the market. We have a wine place that’s going to be there, a cheese place, a seafood supplier, a meat vendor. We’re going to have a coffee shop there. There will be fast food to go, some ethnic food, whether that be Caribbean, Colombian or Asian. The public market is designed for established businesses opening their second or third location and want to have a downtown presence. These are long-term leases — five, eight, 10 years in some cases.
What is your long-term vision for the public market?
I want people to say, “I’m going to Green Bay for the public market. Oh, and they’ve also got a stadium.” This is a community development project. This is what the future of Green Bay is. With the development that’s currently going on in the entire community, I think Green Bay five to 10 years from now will be the Green Bay it’s always been destined to be — a small town with a big town vibe and a place people want to be and want to stay.
