The mission of the Portland Saturday Market is to provide an environment that encourages the economic and artistic growth of emerging and accomplished artisans.

[4] It was founded as a mutual benefit corporation, under which all members would share in the cost and governance of the market, yet keep all profits they receive from selling their items.

A board of directors was established and the first chair was Scott Nay who worked in the Human Resources Department in the city of Portland.

He was instrumental in hiring the first market manager Dana Comfort who along with a well chosen staff began to organize the site by and under the Burnside Bridge.

A clear site plan was eventually created, marking out 8-by-8-foot (2.4 m × 2.4 m) booth spaces, defining aisles and a pattern for customer traffic.

[8] Although the market had already been operating for three decades, it had always existed on a patchwork of short-term leases with private property owners, providing little or no long-term certainty.

The long-range major goals for the Market included: a permanent location, improved infrastructure, and more protection from the weather, needing to be met in a cost-efficient manner.

[8] In October 2005, the city launched its own study, called the "Ankeny/Burnside Development Framework Project", to assess the opportunities for the area and how best to direct public funding to increase private investment.