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Q&A with Jody McAnally, OKC Farmers Public Market
VeloCity recently visited with Jody McAnally to talk about the exciting developments taking place around the OKC Farmers Public Market as the McAnallys celebrate its 20th anniversary under their ownership.
VeloCityOKC: Looking back at the beginning, what about the OKC Farmers Public Market space caught your eye? Where did the dream to revitalize it come from?
Jody McAnally: Well, I would say it was not really on our radar to purchase this property. In the beginning, my husband Burt and I used to own apartment complexes and had a lot of rental units around town. We were out with our realtor who was showing us an apartment complex for sale. My husband promoted boxing at the time and the realtor asked Burt how it was going, and he said, “It sure would be nice to have a good venue.” So, after we looked at the apartment complex, the realtor goes, “Well, have you ever been to the Oklahoma City Farmer's Market?” We said, “Yes, but it won't work because there's too many stanchions.” Then he asked if we’d ever been up to the second floor. We hadn’t as it was blocked off, but we realized he may know something that we didn’t. At that time that whole space was filled with antique shops, and they were just all cobbled together. We went up on the mezzanine and we looked down, and I said, “Oh my gosh, this is a clear span space.” My husband saw boxing and I saw weddings, reunions, art shows, sporting events, concerts and fundraisers that we could host. We thought about it for a while, but we couldn’t help but to fall in love with that beautiful art deco, colonial revival building. She’s so beautiful. It took a little bit and then we finally decided that we were going to bite the bullet and do it. Our original thought just to buy the main building but right before we closed, we ended up buying the rest of the property. We thought it was silly to have almost six acres downtown and not buy it. Anyway, that's how it started.
