About the Market
San Francisco Comes Together Here
SF Public Market is being created to establish a permanent civic marketplace where food, culture, community and opportunity come together — built for San Franciscans and welcoming to the world.
Our Vision
More Than a Market
San Francisco is one of the world's great food, cultural and entrepreneurial cities. It is shaped by extraordinary neighborhoods, generations of immigrants, independent businesses, farmers and food makers, and a historic working waterfront that has connected the city to the Bay for more than a century.
Yet San Francisco has never had one great public market that fully brings those strengths together. SF Public Market is being created to change that.
At its heart will be a great public market filled with independent merchants, fishermen, farmers, chefs, food makers and entrepreneurs. Around that marketplace, SPM will create opportunities for entrepreneurship, workforce development, cultural programming, education and community gathering.
The working waterfront will be part of the experience — not simply part of the history. We envision stronger connections between San Francisco's fishing community and the public, celebrating the people, traditions and industries that helped create the waterfront we know today.
What We Stand For
A Market That Belongs to San Francisco
The world's great public markets become expressions of their cities. Pike Place belongs to Seattle. Borough Market belongs to London. SF Public Market will belong unmistakably to San Francisco.
Creating Opportunity
Our Innovation Kitchen and entrepreneurship programs will provide pathways for food businesses to test ideas, access shared resources, and potentially grow into permanent market vendors.
Built for the Next 100 Years
Success should be measured by the businesses it helps build, jobs it creates, traditions it preserves, and value it creates for San Francisco over generations.
Our Purpose
SF Public Market exists to make San Francisco stronger — stronger independent businesses, more opportunities for entrepreneurs and workers, and a civic institution future generations can call their own.
Leadership
The People Behind the Mission
Founder
Joe Dugan
SF Public Market began with a simple belief from founder Joe Dugan: San Francisco deserves a great public market that reflects the extraordinary character of the city—and is built to serve it for generations.
Joe is a San Francisco entrepreneur, business leader and civic advocate with more than three decades of experience building businesses, developing organizations and bringing people together around ambitious ideas.
He founded Alliance Travel in 1991 and grew the company into a significant travel enterprise before exiting the business in 2018. He later founded Dugan Development, expanding his experience into real estate and development.
In 2014, Joe founded San Francisco Elite Academy, a nonprofit youth soccer organization built around player development, opportunity and access. The organization has grown to serve hundreds of Bay Area families and has raised millions of dollars to help ensure that financial circumstances do not prevent young people from participating.
Joe also serves on the University of San Francisco Board of Trustees and has been actively involved in San Francisco's business, education, sports, philanthropic and civic communities.
Founding Executive
Chris O'Connell
Chris O'Connell serves as a Founding Executive of SF Public Market, contributing expertise in law, organizational development, strategic planning, governance, and communications.
He earned his Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 2011, where he served on the USF Law Review. Previously, he was a news editor at the San Francisco Chronicle (1999–2008).
Chris and his wife, Mary, raised four children in San Francisco's North Beach, where they founded and operated a popular neighborhood newspaper. His professional background and deep community ties inform his approach to building SF Public Market.
Strategic Advisor
Po Bronson
Po Bronson is a General Partner at SOSV and Managing Director of SOSV SF, bringing expertise in innovation, entrepreneurship, investment, and translating complex challenges into opportunities. A longtime science journalist, he has received nine national awards and authored seven bestselling books published in 28 languages.
His background includes economics, finance at Credit Suisse, consulting at Arthur Andersen, and corporate innovation.
As a Strategic Advisor to SF Public Market, Bronson will help shape the Innovation Kitchen, small-business incubation, entrepreneurial ecosystem, and pathways for emerging food businesses and founders, bringing an innovative perspective to the Market's economic and community impact strategy.
Why SF Public Market
Joe's vision for SF Public Market extends well beyond creating a successful marketplace.
It is about building a lasting civic institution—one that strengthens independent businesses, creates opportunities for entrepreneurs and workers, celebrates San Francisco's food and cultures, reconnects people with the city's working waterfront, and creates a place where residents from across San Francisco can come together.
Joe sees his role as founder not as building the institution around himself, but as bringing together the people capable of making the vision real: merchants, fishermen, chefs, entrepreneurs, community leaders, philanthropists, architects, developers, operators and San Franciscans who believe the city should continue building great things.
The ambition is generational.
"Some generations inherit great civic institutions. Some generations have the opportunity to build them. SF Public Market is our opportunity."
— Joe Dugan, Founder