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VVK Podcast With Craig Fahle
The Detroit based VVK PR+Creative team takes a deep dive into the important and interesting issues. Hosted by longtime radio and podcast host Craig Fahle, each episode will feature conversations with thought leaders from Detroit, the State of Michigan, and beyond.
VVK Podcast With Craig Fahle
What Makes a 120-Year-Old Market Essential? A conversation with Eastern Market Partnership CEO Katy Trudeau
Detroit's Eastern Market is more than its famous Saturday crowds. CEO Katie Trudeau reveals how this 120-year-old food district serves as an economic engine for Southeast Michigan, transacting over $200,000 annually in SNAP benefits while pioneering food access programs like Double Up Food Bucks.
Unlike tourist-focused markets elsewhere, Eastern Market maintains authenticity through its working food district—produce houses, meatpackers, and processors operating alongside weekend vendors. The new Shed 7 wholesale distribution center will support midsize Michigan farmers and urban growers while serving the region's diverse grocery ecosystem.
Through the "Authentic Eastern Market" campaign (nearly $15.5 million raised), the nonprofit guides neighborhood development to complement rather than displace the district's food-centered identity. With events like Murals in the Market and Eastern Market After Dark, plus emerging restaurants and breweries, the market evolves while preserving its essential role in Detroit's food landscape.
As Trudeau says: "People who don't love this place are people who don't know about it." Discover how this institution balances preservation with growth while creating food-based opportunities for the next generation.
Greetings everyone. Welcome to the VVK Podcast. I'm your host, Craig Fahle. On this program, we explore the people, ideas and innovations shaping our community, and today we're talking about one of Detroit's most beloved and enduring institutions. Eastern Market. It's more than just a place to shop for fresh produce. It's a vibrant hub for food, entrepreneurs, cultural exchange and community connection. Our guest today will be Katie Trudeau, CEO of the Eastern Market Partnership. Under her leadership, the market continues to grow as a cornerstone of Detroit's food economy, while also playing a key role in shaping the future development of the surrounding neighborhood. We'll discuss the market's rich history, its evolving role in the city and what's next for this iconic destination. That's coming up on the VVK podcast. Stay with us, Katie Trudeau. Welcome to the VVK podcast. It's a pleasure to have you with us today.
Katy Trudeau:It's a pleasure to be here.
Craig Fahle:Well, as I said in the introduction, Eastern Market is so much more than most people potentially realize. Most of them know of this place because they come here and buy fresh fruits and vegetables on the weekends or they come to special events. But what you do for the community goes so far beyond just being a place where people can buy and sell things. Talk a bit about Eastern Market and the role that you play in the community.
Katy Trudeau:Yeah, I think it's not even known by everyone that we're an independent nonprofit organization that operates the market on behalf of the city of Detroit, who owns all of the underlying property that the market is contained within, and we've been around since 2006. And since 2006, we've done a lot for the neighborhood and the market. We've invested millions of dollars in the sheds. We have the ability to fundraise from private philanthropy to fundraise from private philanthropy and we are lucky to receive public funds as well to support that work. And we've also in that time expanded a lot into programming small business entrepreneurship programming, food access programming and we transact over $200,000 annually at the Saturday market in SNAP benefits.
Craig Fahle:Yeah, and we'll talk about the programs in just a little bit because they are increasingly important these days. But I do want to ask sort of a fun question when we begin, because you mentioned that you've been here. Well, at least EMP has been here since 2006,. But the market's been around a lot longer than that. Do you remember the first visit or a memorable visit you had at Eastern Market?
Katy Trudeau:My history with the market is a little unique in that I was doing an internship in graduate school for the founding president of the Eastern Market Corporation, kate Beebe, and I'm a trained urban planner. I was very interested in the market itself as that it could offer for the city of Detroit.
Craig Fahle:Well, you do have an interesting background and, just for full disclosure, I mean you were at the city of Detroit at the same time that I was at the land bank, so we did have some interactions back then. Detroit at the same time that I was at the land bank, so we did have some interactions back then. But talk a bit about what it was about. This role that sort of led you away from sort of government work and more into this, which isn't necessarily philanthropic work, but it is definitely nonprofit. But there's still so many different aspects of your past career that flow into this.
Katy Trudeau:Yeah, so I do also have a before government. I worked in the nonprofit sector in the city of Boston for many years and have always been interested in the nonprofit sector neighborhood on its own, unique to the downtown neighborhoods, unique to a residential neighborhood, for instance. We do have some residential in the district, but it's a very unique commercial district that you don't see elsewhere in the city of Detroit and actually in many cases elsewhere in the United States.
Craig Fahle:Well, let's talk about that for just a second, because Eastern Market is different and I mentioned at the beginning that you know you do a lot more than your typical markets but people may be familiar with, like Pike's Place Market in Seattle and some other famous outdoor vending spaces, but what makes Eastern Market different than those?
Katy Trudeau:We are a market district. We have a operating commercial food district here in the Eastern Market neighborhood, in addition to the public markets that everyone knows and loves, that occur every Saturday under the sheds, produce houses, farmers that have established brick and mortar businesses here in the neighborhood around the public market facilities, and those growth patterns have retained themselves till today, where you still see those same meatpacking companies, those same produce houses, the farmers coming every Saturday to the Saturday market or to sell it wholesale. Those same patterns have remained. They've changed and evolved over time, but they've remained in the neighborhood for over 120 years, which is unique.
Craig Fahle:Well, that's interesting. I mean that part of it makes a lot of sense, obviously, when you have all the surrounding businesses. But why does the market itself matter? In a city like Detroit, most people would think I need stuff, I just go to Walmart or I go to Kroger, I buy stuff there. Why does this still play an important role, do you think?
Katy Trudeau:I would say it's important in Detroit on multiple levels. One, the community aspect of it. There's really nothing like it on a Saturday at the Eastern Market when it comes to the vendor mix, the music that you hear playing throughout the sheds and just people seeing each other. You'll observe customers who go to the same vendor every week and they have formed a relationship over decades and there's something healing about that. And there's something healing about that. There's something really important for people to experience that are made literally in Eastern Market, in the kitchen in Shed 5, and the ability to actually access local Michigan-grown produce.
Craig Fahle:Well, okay, let's flip that then. So we mentioned why it's important for the customers and the city's residents here having access to all of this, but why is it important for producers, growers? What sort of access do they get to customers that they wouldn't otherwise have?
Katy Trudeau:markets season in the months of June, july, august, september, we can see anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 visitors on a single Saturday. That type of customer base for a coffee business or a small or medium-scale farm on one day can be life-changing. That type of foot traffic in one day rivals that of foot traffic in a neighborhood commercial district seven days a week. So as a small business owner you can come to the Saturday market and you're reaching a customer base. That means that you're coming down that one day as opposed to having to have a brick and mortar business open 7 am to 4 pm every single day of the week.
Craig Fahle:Well, I think one of the things that people may not know as well about Eastern Market is the role that you play in helping some of these small businesses develop, turn their idea into a business incubator of sorts for food-related businesses. At what point did you recognize that that was something that needed to happen, and why is that an important component of your operations now?
Katy Trudeau:So there was a shift in the Saturday market during the time of the Eastern Market Partnerships existence, where the market went from being more geared towards just produce and farmers to also allowing packaged goods, and that addition of vendors opened up a whole, a lot of opportunity for small businesses who are making those packaged goods. And so with that change in the market, we also felt it was very important to give more folks the opportunity to start and grow that type of business. And so in 2015, we opened a commercial kitchen in Shed 5. That kitchen is rented out on an hourly basis to food business entrepreneurs. There's a low barrier to entry in starting a business when you can rent on an hourly basis, as opposed to having the pressure of finding your own kitchen, bearing the weight of the rent of that kitchen yourself. And then we also have food business acceleration programming, where we're renting to businesses dedicated commercial kitchens that we rent to them as a nonprofit at a reduced rate.
Craig Fahle:Well, and that plays obviously a big role in establishing Detroit and Southeast Michigan as sort of a food business corridor, and so a lot of what you've been doing in terms of renovations to some of the properties that you have for the sheds and things like that has gone towards sort of making these spaces available. I just want to talk about this. Just a couple of days ago we had a groundbreaking for the Shed 7 project, which takes this to another level really and frankly branches out your food business support in sort of a new direction in terms of the level of support you're able to provide and even the scaling of some of those businesses. So talk a bit about Shed 7, what it's intended to be and why this was a necessary change for the market.
Katy Trudeau:Shed 7 was necessary on multiple levels.
Katy Trudeau:One we have seen a reduction in the opportunities for farmers Michigan's midsize farmers and local urban farmers in selling their products at wholesale and local urban farmers in selling their products at wholesale.
Katy Trudeau:So the Shed 7 project is fundamentally a wholesale distribution center that provides wholesale opportunities to several of our tenants who are midsize and local farmers. The other thing that that helps to do is to support Southeast Michigan's very diverse grocery store community, where in Southeast Michigan we're very fortunate to have a lot of family-owned grocery stores that have not yet gone the way of chains. Sort of midsize, high quality produce being offered at that Shed 7 facility will create an opportunity for those grocery stores to continue to source that local produce that they value on their shelves. I would also say that Shed 7 is very exciting to me in that it provides dedicated space for Detroit-based urban farmers who may not be operating at a scale yet where they themselves can wholesale, but if they're sharing a space with each other, they're able to create an inventory that can meet the demand of a wholesale market. There's also dedicated refrigeration space for all the farmers using that facility. That is very, very important and needed for farms to be able to scale.
Craig Fahle:Well, and these are not… inexpensive upgrades that you're making here, especially like the thought of refrigerated space. I've been to some larger refrigerated facilities and it's amazing to me how they're able to maintain temperatures in such large spaces. Talk about the support you've received for this project, where it's coming from, and, you know, was it easy to sell people on the idea that this was something you needed to do.
Katy Trudeau:So one of the things that I think is really important about the work we've been doing recently is that, as Detroit grows and investment comes back to the city, there has been an interest in investment in Eastern Market that might change the fabric of the neighborhood. I mentioned earlier that this is a commercial food district that's been operating this way in one form or another for over 120 years. Us making a project like Shed 7 a priority is one of our ways to put a stake in the ground that this is something that we need to retain for Detroit and Southeast Michigan and the state of Michigan this really vibrant commercial food district, and so it's sort of within that context that we prioritize this wholesale distribution center as a key project for us and went out to fundraise. We were very fortunate to receive a $12 million grant from the state of Michigan, with the support of Senator Roger Victory from the west side of the state, whose family also happens to be beet farmers. So Eastern Market is a place that's near and dear to their hearts, and that grant has been administered through the Michigan Department of Agriculture.
Katy Trudeau:So that's really the that huge grant has helped us to acquire the property, is helping us to make a bulk of the construction upgrades to the property over here on Russell Street. We are also very fortunate to receive funding from the Gilbert Family Foundation. It's their investment that's helping to leverage what I described earlier as that shared space for Detroit's urban farmers, and we're also utilizing New Markets tax credits that we are fortunate to have through partnerships with Invest Detroit and Michigan Community Capital. So I think that is all to say that a project like this is not simple. It takes a lot of different funding sources and a lot of partnership, but we're really excited about it. It was wonderful to break ground on it earlier this month and I think it's going to be really transformative for the neighborhood.
Craig Fahle:Well, obviously, maintenance of the sheds that you have. I mean, a lot of upgrades have been made over the years, especially since 2006,. Some significant upgrades, but there's still more work to do. I know there are plans that were going to be announced later for additional properties here. Shed 4, I think, is something that you guys have been pretty open about and have been raising money for. I do want to talk a bit about, again, raising money. You have had the authentic Eastern market campaign that's been going on since, I believe, 2024, mid 2024, about.
Craig Fahle:August. So it's we're about a year in now at this point in time. How has that been received? How's that going, and are you surprised at the level of public support that is out there for this market?
Katy Trudeau:I'm not surprised at the level of public support that's out there for the market. I'm very pleased to see that in launching the campaign last year, more support has come out of the woodwork. I think people who don't love this place are people who don't know about it. So the campaign has helped us to get the word out about the place and I think it's just gained us more supporters throughout the region. The campaign has been going really well. We have a $15.5 million goal. We're almost three-quarters of the way fundraised on that and it's been.
Katy Trudeau:It's really the campaign, is it's dollars, but it's also a vision for the neighborhood, reflected in what I just said about Shed 7, reflected in what I've said about Urban Farmers and the history of this organization. The establishment of the nonprofit organization has meant that we have a level of flexibility to invest over $25 million to date in these shed facilities, and the campaign is also focused on ensuring that the organization is sustained into the future. Like I said, it's given us resources to do this work, but it's also created a lot of excitement and momentum for the organization and everything that we're doing and how important not only Eastern Market is to our regional food economy, but how important a food economy is to the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit.
Craig Fahle:Well, I think a lot of this, though, and the concerns of the community about what's been happening in terms of redevelopment around the city is reflected in the name of the campaign itself Authentic Eastern Market. That is important to people, that this part of it you know what it's been known for is preserved in some capacity, and, as we know, detroiters are very, very protective of sort of legacy institutions that they value. So are you trying to reassure people that Eastern Market remains Eastern Market, sort of like keep Austin, weird sort of thing.
Katy Trudeau:Yeah, definitely. We certainly don't want to turn down opportunities for investment in the neighborhood where there's resources coming in that can support the work we're doing, where there's interest coming in to develop new food businesses, to start a restaurant in the neighborhood. We've seen a lot of that type of activity over the last several years. We want to make sure that there is a good environment for that type of investment to happen. But at the same time we do want to assure Detroit residents that Eastern Market is here to stay, that it's going to remain authentic. It'll be the food district that people know and love. The markets will happen every Saturday year round, and in the summers on Tuesdays and Sundays. There's something that there's comfort in folks knowing that this place will be here for them to do their shopping, to be part of a community, and the campaign at its core is stating that that this is going to be a place that remains authentic to the city of Detroit.
Craig Fahle:My guest right now is Katie Trudeau, of course, president and CEO here at Eastern Market on the VVK podcast. I've got a few more questions for you about that. We'll talk about real estate in just a little bit, because I think that's one of the things that people get concerned about, so we'll get to that in just a bit. But you mentioned that it's important for people to know that this place is going to be here.
Craig Fahle:Eastern Market has really ramped up its role in the food security system here in Southeast Michigan over the last 15 years or so, doing things like the Double Up Food Bucks program, where people on SNAP benefits can get basically double their money with those benefits when they shop at Eastern Market. There's a lot of uncertainty out there right now about what's going to happen to food support systems in the wake of a lot of things happening both statewide and, of course, nationally, which has gotten a lot of attention. How does an organization like yours prepare for that? Can you prepare for it, and have you started thinking about what impact this is going to have?
Katy Trudeau:Well, there's still a lot of uncertainty about how we at Eastern Market will be impacted by changes, especially at the federal level. We are preparing ourselves. One thing about this place is it has helped folks weather various challenges over the years. This Eastern Market was critically important to Detroiters during the pandemic, during the pandemic, and so what we're looking at is how we have we're very fortunate to have an infrastructure here through the public markets, through our relationships with farmers, through our relationships with small business owners and food makers, to provide an opportunity for residents and customers. And what we can do is double down on that infrastructure. Where we're able to, like I said there is, will be able to create a system or a support system that will continue to benefit residents no matter what changes occur.
Craig Fahle:Well, I appreciate that. I mean it is a hugely important issue right now. I promise we'll get to some fun stuff in just a little bit, but I do want to talk about real estate and real estate development. I mean, there is also the Eastern Market Development Corporation, which is a part of your organization. You mentioned authentic Eastern market and some of the pressures that may come, and there are people that would like to invest in the neighborhood and they may be well-intentioned, right, they have the right things, but there are potential impacts of increased residential development if you get the wrong mix of businesses. This isn't necessarily the right place for an M&M store, even if it is a food-based business. Technically, Talk a little bit about how you sort of determine which projects you want to get behind and either you know actually support or just support in theory.
Katy Trudeau:So we have the benefit of having completed a planning study with the city of Detroit that was published in 2019. And that planning study created several goals for us, both Eastern Market, as well as the city and the Trade Economic Growth Corporation to sort of rally around. That plan also resulted in a major rezoning of over 2,000 parcels across the neighborhood. That has helped to facilitate a type of development that helps us to keep this place authentic. It's not necessarily. It doesn't prohibit residential development. It encourages it around the Dequindre Cut. It allows for some type of residential smaller scale residential in and around the neighborhood. But recognizing that living next to uses like meat packing and processing and public markets that start as early as 6 am is not always the most beneficial for residents, the plan and our goals continue to be to encourage a type of real estate development that is more food-based, more food processing-based. The other thing about that type of use is that it also generates jobs, and well-paying jobs for Detroiters.
Craig Fahle:Yeah, I mean it seems like though I don't want to suggest that there's a ton of pressure but there is always interest, the proximity to downtown and everything that's happening there. People are looking for whatever is going to be the next hot area, and Eastern Market saw some flickers of that I don't want to say flickers a little bit more than that, really starting about a decade ago, but that has cooled a little bit. Covid definitely put sort of a damp blanket on top of things. Was that actually a good thing? Potentially?
Katy Trudeau:I'm always saying COVID is good, but in terms of calming everybody down, Well, I would say that, folks, some of the heat of real estate in the neighborhood has cooled a little. The challenge we're faced right now is with still really high property costs. I think there might be more development happening in the neighborhood if prices were a little lower. So we're really just sort of waiting that out and doing what we can to build projects like Shed 7, where we're doing what we can to unlock some of the properties that are in the neighborhood and standing either vacant or underutilized. What I would say is that there still is a lot of interest in developing in the neighborhood.
Katy Trudeau:In other cities where there had been market districts, like Eastern Market, like Chicago and Washington DC and even New York City, the type of urban development pattern that you see here warehouse buildings, ability to walk to your local farmer's market you have seen a changing in the neighborhood and there still is an interest in that. And that's where we get involved to try to say we don't want these small and medium-sized food businesses to be priced out of the district, we don't want the market uses to be displaced. So where we, like I said earlier, we can encourage investment and guide investment in a way that really benefits everyone but also encourage a type of development that keeps this place as a food neighborhood fundamentally.
Craig Fahle:Yeah, a challenge for sure.
Katy Trudeau:Yes, certainly.
Craig Fahle:Well, katie Trudeau, I do want to talk a little bit about some upcoming events and some things that you have going on, because you know we've talked a lot about the Saturday market, but there are so many more things that happen here. You've got some upcoming things going on. Obviously, tourists have been flocking to this area just to see public art and murals in the market and things like that. But talk about some of the other programs that you have coming up and events that people want to come to if they've only been here for the Saturday market or if they've just never been here.
Katy Trudeau:Yeah, we have. You mentioned murals in the market. We just announced that we'll be bringing a mural festival back to the neighborhood after a few years, a few year pause. That will happen the week of September 15th through the 20th and that will coincide with Eastern Market After Dark, which is a Thursday evening event that we do in partnership with Design Corps Detroit. There'll be live mural painting happening during Eastern Market After Dark. That's an event that starts at 6 pm and runs well into the evening hours. There's programming that happens in the shed, there's a night market, there's artisans, there's music and then there's also a lot of activity that happens throughout the district. The district businesses open up at night. Some of them program their spaces with music and art and it's a really, really amazing night for Detroit and for the neighborhood.
Katy Trudeau:Yeah, I would also just add that Eastern Market. You know we talk a lot about the Saturday market and, as I mentioned earlier, in the months of June through September we have Tuesday and Sunday markets, but this is a seven day a week neighborhood. We've got a really vibrant bar scene. We've got several breweries. One that just opened Full Measure Brewery opened a couple of weeks ago. We have a really great commercial district over on Gratiot Avenue with coffee shops like La Ventana and Trina Soaps, and there's some newer bars over there, and then we've got an emerging restaurant scene. We've got the flagship Cipino's restaurant here that's been here for many years and, yeah, it's really Burt's. It's a really unique neighborhood that really is here seven days a week.
Craig Fahle:All right. Well, Katie Trudeau, we appreciate your time. We're looking forward to what is next at Eastern Market. We always enjoy our time here and our time with you. Thanks so much.
Katy Trudeau:Thank you.
Craig Fahle:All right, katie Trudeau, president and CEO of Eastern Market, joining us here on the VBK Podcast, and that's going to do it for the VBK Podcast today. As always, we appreciate that you have found us and hope you learned a little something along the way. If you have suggestions on things you would like us to discuss or people we should be talking to, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can find us via email. Our address is hello at vvkagencycom, and you can also find VBK PR and Creative on LinkedIn, instagram and Facebook. Just send a message with your feedback and suggestions. Thanks again for listening to the VBK Podcast. I'm Craig Fahle and I look forward to talking with you again soon. Thank you, thank you.
