(Credit: Courtesy Glens Falls, Gordon Woodworth photo, 2022)
(Credit: Courtesy Glens Falls, Gordon Woodworth photo, 2022)
Interior view.
(Credit: Courtesy Glens Falls, Gordon Woodworth photo, 2022)
Southwest aerial view
Glens Falls Mayor Bill Collins said he will meet with the executive board of the Glens Falls Farmers Market on Wednesday Sept. 28 in advance of two public meetings to discuss the Market Center plans on South Street.
Some affiliated with the current Farmers Market, which now meets outside at the South Street Pavilion, have expressed concerns about the Market Center plans, saying it is smaller than the current location and doesn’t have adequate pull-up space to load and unload product.
“We will have 6,000 square feet of space and we want to meet every need that we can,” Collins told FoothillsBusinessDaily.com.
A flyer distributed at last Saturday’s Farmers’ Market asked patrons for their help.
The flyer says: “The Glens Falls DRI (Downtown Revitalization Initiative) Project includes moving the Farmers Market to a less desirable location with less space for our venders, less space for our customers, less space for parking and includes several blackout dates for other events displacing our market vendors who make their living selling their produce and goods at this market.”
The flyer encourages those interested to attend one of both of the public meetings.
[See our calendar for details about the public meetings Thursday Sept. 29 and Friday Sept. 30.]
“I understand their concerns, but this [building] is for more than the Farmers Market,” Collins said. “We will use it for other events as well.”
The Market Center is a key part of the city’s plan to re-energize South Street using $10 million in state DRI funds. The Glens Falls Farmers Market uses the pavilion just four hours per week, the mayor and the city's economic development director Jeff Flagg have point out in the past, and the space is a parking lot the rest of the time. The city wants a building that is used more.
Saratoga developer Sonny Bonacio through his SpringCity development corporation plans to develop three existing buildings near the intersection of Elm and South streets, in addition to building a new, large mixed-use building that will front both South and Elm streets and wrap around the current Sandy’s Clam Bar building.
The new large building will replace the South Street Pavilion and another parking lot on Elm Street.
Plans for the Market Square building, also called the "Yellow Birch Leaf" building because of its shape, will go in front of the Glens Falls Planning Board on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 4:45 p.m.
Collins also shared new renderings from Envision, an architectural firm based in Troy that is designing the three-season space.
[Read our extensive South Street DRI coverage here.]
The more detailed renderings, shared exclusively with Foothills Business Daily, show more detail of the birch-leaf shaped building and adjoining performance stage.