An Old World-style marketplace is planned for the Pennsylvania Railroad Fruit Auction Building on Smallman Street between 16th and 21st Streets.

Called The Strip Marketplace, it would be an $8.6 million project of Neighbors in the Strip and the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which bought the property in 1981 with federal economic development money to support the produce industry.

Cindy Cassell, head of the project for Neighbors in the Strip, said Gov. Ed Rendell is informally committed to the project and state Rep. Don Walko has championed it. "He's keeping the governor interested and getting other people interested."

The project is expected to generate about 350 jobs, attract more than 80 vendors and yield annual gross revenue of $13.5 million. It would put a variety of food and other vendors in a large indoor space in the style of many countries in Europe and elsewhere. The URA and the Strip District stakeholders are seeking financial support and negotiating with banks for tax credits.

The 80-year-old terminal building has no sprinklers, no sewer system and a leaky roof. It will take almost $1 million to bring it up to code, Cassell said.

About 74,000 of the 100,000 square feet are vacant, but no current tenant will be dislodged.

They include the Society for Contemporary Crafts, the La Prima wholesale business and the Homeless Children Education Fund.

On Aug. 19, Neighbors in the Strip and URA representatives will visit one of the models for the project, Cleveland's 93-year-old West Side Market, which is roughly 76,000 square feet, said George Bradac, the market manager.

Cassell said the Marketplace is expected to drive more vigorous weekday traffic into the Strip, jump-starting an atmosphere that is most alive on Saturdays.

If the URA keeps the property, she said, start-up costs can stay low, as well as rents, so that new entrepreneurs can incubate in it.

Cassell said the process "must be sensitive" not to supersede existing businesses. "We have three businesses on Penn Avenue that want to open an additional location in the Marketplace, with a different twist," said Becky Rodgers, executive director of Neighbors in the Strip.

"The Strip is filled with entrepreneurial thinkers. If we do it correctly and get everyone involved, we think it will be good for everyone."

Said Anne Mullaney, president of the board of Neighbors in the Strip, "Our biggest mission is not to lose what makes the Strip the Strip."