Market Ventures shapes consulting arrangements based on needs of the project and the client’s available resources.  We focus on the nuts and bolts of success, including the project’s economics, design and operations.  We often create detailed financial models, including individual operating pro forma of each proposed market vendor in order to determine their profitability, rent levels, employment, capital needs and tenant improvement (TI) allowances.  Info from these vendor pro forma then flows into the market facility’s operating pro forma, which determines debt carrying capacity or needed subsidy.

MVI works with local architects and engineers, real estate professionals, market research firms and other professionals, as needed.

Theodore A. Spitzer, President

Ted Spitzer is a nationally recognized expert on food markets and alternative local food systems. His core competencies include feasibility analysis, market research, urban planning, and program evaluation.

For over 25 years Ted has helped communities throughout the country to develop, revitalize, and improve their public markets and the neighborhoods around them.  He has assisted numerous wholesale and retail markets and food hubs, including Detroit’s Eastern Market, the Hartford Regional Market, the Western North Carolina Farmers’ Market in Asheville, the Rochester Public Market, and the South Carolina State Farmers’ Market in Columbia.

After leading the consultant team that developed a master plan for rebuilding historic Lexington Market in Baltimore, Ted is now providing predevelopment assistance to the Market’s nonprofit board and executive staff.  Ted led the planning effort that led to the creation of the popular Milwaukee Public Market.  Mr. Spitzer has recently directed consulting efforts in Asheville, Eau Claire, Kenosha, Salt Lake City, Tulsa, Atlantic City, Fort Wayne, Boise, Fort Collins, Louisville, Lynchburg, New Haven, Toledo, and Philadelphia.  He led the team that assessed the feasibility of a new wholesale farmers’ market in New York City, work that included groundbreaking research in demand for locally grown foods among buyers in New York City and potential supply from regional farmers.

Ted led the planning and predevelopment efforts for the new Grand Rapids Downtown Market, including the initial feasibility study and concept plan.  This mixed-use market facility includes an outdoor farmers’ market shed, a 21 vendor indoor market hall, two restaurants, 35,000 sf of commercial lease space, and a 5,100 sf shared commercial kitchen/ incubator.  Key innovations include rooftop greenhouses, a large demonstration kitchen and special event space, and the country’s first Kid’s Kitchen cooking lab with adjustable height cooking surfaces to accommodate six year-olds to adults.  Ted played a central role in fundraising for the $28 million project and in developing community partnerships to enhance the Market, focusing on the education and medical sectors.  Construction began in January 2012 and the Downtown Market opened in August 2013.  The Downtown Market is a 2015 recipient of the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence and won the American Planning Association’s Excellence in Economic Development Planning Award.

Most recently, Ted led the master planning effort for historic Lexington Market in downtown Baltimore. Following the plan’s adoption in January 2015, Ted is helping to guide implementation by supporting the Market’s board and executive staff through design, fundraising, partnership development, and organizational efforts.

Ted holds a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs and Urban & Regional Planning from Princeton University and a BA in Urban Studies from Columbia University.  He is a board member of the National Association of Produce Market Managers and Treasurer of Cultivating Community.

Hugh A. Boyd, FAIA, Senior Associate

Hugh Boyd Hugh Boyd, FAIA, is principal of Hugh A. Boyd, Architects, a specialty architecture firm based in Montclair, New Jersey, that he founded in 1987. Mr. Boyd has extensive experience in retail and commercial space design, merchandising, and graphic concepts, with particular expertise in the programming and design of public markets. Recently the firm designed the very successful Market at Grand Central Terminal, New York, the redevelopment of Cincinnati’s historic Findlay Market, and new public markets in Portland, Maine and Charleston, West Virginia. Mr. Boyd’s expertise also extends to the study and design of roadside markets around the country, including the highly successful expansion and renovation of Atkins’ Farmers Country Market, in Amherst, MA.

Paul Steinke, Senior Associate

Paul Steinke was General Manager of Philadelphia’s historic Reading Terminal Market, among the premier public markets in North America. Among his accomplishments were negotiating new long-term leases with over 75 merchants, recruiting dozens of new vendors, making numerous facility improvements, and introducing Sunday hours for the first time in the Market’s 100+ year history.

Prior to running Reading Terminal, Paul was Executive Director of the University City District, a business improvement district with a staff of 80 and a $4.5 million budget.

Paul brings unparalleled hands-on management experience to Market Ventures and a long track record of success.