David Schlarmann, a business analyst manager for Principal Global Investors, announced his plans last Tuesday to build a year-round public market that will offer Iowa-grown produce and locally made products at 2002 Woodland Ave.

The Metro Market, scheduled to open in May, is on track to be built before the city’s planned public market on Court Avenue. The city’s proposal for a $20 million market is still in its initial planning stages.

Schlarmann said he originally got the idea for a public market while in Pennsylvania, and wondered why the concept couldn’t work in Des Moines.

He said the market will carry “Iowa-valued, -made and -produced products,” which could include everything from produce to antiques, and will operate two days a week. The market will also have an auction space and may also be used for art shows.

“I’ll do anything to get people into the building,” he said. “Iowans are looking for something to do, and it will be a source of entertainment and a place to experience diversity.”

Even though Schlarmann’s beating the city to the marketplace, the city’s plans haven’t changed, said Downtown Community Alliance Executive Director Christopher Greenfield.

“It’s a great location,” he said. “But the (plans) I saw didn’t have it open during the week.”

Greenfield and Schlarmann spoke during the planning for The Metro Market, but Greenfield said their ideas were too different to collaborate on a project.

“I hope he’s successful, but I think it’s a different sort of deal,” Greenfield said. “One thing we heard loud and clear: [The city’s public market] needs to be wrapped in with the Court Avenue neighborhood and tied in closely with the Farmers Market and (downtown) housing. We’re continuing to focus on that.”

There’s no city money involved in Schlarmann’s project, but he said the city had been supportive.

That support was evident in the several state representatives and city council members who attended Schlarmann’s announcement. They offered comments on how the two markets would work together.

“It’s not the right space on Court Avenue,” Rep. Jack Hatch said. Hatch, who like Schlarmann is a longtime resident of the Sherman Hill neighborhood, said the entrepreneur picked the better location.

“Sherman Hill is a perfect fit,” Hatch said. “It’s filled with homegrown businesses.”

The Metro Market will occupy an 18,000-square-foot building, home to M&M Sales Co. until Jan. 1, when the company is moving to Urbandale. An empty lot adjacent to the building is part of the property, and can be used by the market for overflow parking.

City Councilman Tom Vlassis said if the concept works, he’d like to see similar ventures open in other neighborhoods. He also said he’d had doubts about the Court Avenue plan.

“People like the Sherman Hill area,” he said. “Sherman Hill will support it.”

Rep. Ed Fallon also attended the announcement. The group Fallon heads, 1,000 Friends of Iowa, had attempted to start a similar market at Sixth and University avenues, but failed. During that work, a consultant gave suggestions for the best places in town to put such a market.

The result?

“Either downtown or at [Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway] and Ingersoll [Avenue],” Fallon said. “(This project is) a block away.”

Fallon agreed with Hatch that the city should discontinue its public market plans.

“It would make it impossible for this to be viable,” he said.

However, if the other market is built, the two markets might create more of a draw, said City Councilwoman Chris Hensley. She compared the synergy of having two markets to the effect of having several car dealerships in one area.

“I think it’s an outstanding project,” she said.