The 15-year-old market, which has about 80 vendors operating during warm months at Riverside Park and during the winter at the Atrium, will become a permanent part of the One Monument Square project -- if all the dithering ever ends over getting a final plan for the project to be constructed on the vacant site that formerly was home to City Hall.
Creation of a new home for the market will be enabled by a $1.5 million Economic Development grant, part of $60 million in grants announced on Thursday for various Capital Region projects.
While the $1.5 million award is heartening, it is far less than the $2.8 million grant application the Farmers Market reportedly submitted back in June.
Monica Kurzejeski, market manager, said, "We're pretty hard on the Atrium. It's a tough use. We bring in produce and freight and everything every week and then pull it back out. So, this is a great opportunity for us to design a building that fits the market."
While there are no actual architectural plans for the project so far, Kurzejeski said "We are working with a developer to create a very garage-door like atmosphere, so during the summer we can roll it up and it can be a wide-open space and you can see the river and be able to utilize the public access points of the park."
Wouldn't a grant to beautify the shopping areas in the river street area (bid) Be great! I picture a street or streets with outside café and walkable shops.Parking lots.This would be alot like Burlington or old Montreal.
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