Farmer's Market changes days, location

Organizers hope the new arrangement for the market will lure downtown workers and more vendors.

By CHRISTINA HEADRICK

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 28, 2001

The Downtown Farmer's Market is moving from its regularly scheduled Saturday time slot to Wednesdays this fall.

And beginning Oct. 24, the market will open in a new downtown location, a vacant lot that the city owns on the southeast corner of Pierce Street and East Avenue, two blocks off Cleveland Street.

With the changes, the Farmer's Market hopes to draw more shoppers who live and work near downtown, said Bob Fernandez, a retired grocery store executive who manages the event. Fernandez has visions of downtown employees hitting the market on lunch breaks, then stashing their fresh produce in their office refrigerators.

The market may be able to attract more vendors on Wednesdays, too, Fernandez said. "We're hoping we have to turn them away," he said.

Some longtime vendors are taking a wait-and-see approach to the change in days, particularly after the market built a following on Saturdays during the past six years.

"I've had a real good business on Saturdays," said Dell Kelleher, a Clearwater resident who sells vine-ripe, field-fresh produce. "I hope it works. I really want it to work. I'll hope for the best."

The market will be open Wednesdays between from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. through April 15. In addition to produce, vendors sell fresh baked goods, plants, flowers and handmade crafts. New this year will be a fish vendor selling smoked mullet and other fresh seafood.

The Farmer's Market began as a way to lure people downtown. But that proved difficult, Fernandez said. Many customers were snowbirds, he said, while year-round residents made other plans for their Saturdays and chose not to drive downtown for the market.

So this year, the nonprofit group that runs the market began looking for a new day and new location. Coachman Park was its top choice, but city staff members said that might conflict with other events and the construction of the new Memorial Causeway bridge.

Finally, market organizers and the city agreed within the last week to move the event to the vacant lot. The lot was once used as a nighttime parking lot for Club More, a music venue that closed this month after the city decided to stop its customers from parking there.

The farmer's market will be given use of 24 parking spaces in the lot once a week under a city special events permit, said Kevin Dunbar, the city's parks and recreation director.

After this year's market, the city may add some landscaping and create a park on the lot, "kind of a city square kind of thing," Dunbar said. Such improvements might make it more attractive for the market next year, Fernandez said.

The Downtown Farmer's Market will hold an orientation meeting for vendors at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 4. at the Main Library, 100 N Osceola Ave. Fernandez said new vendors are welcome.

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