Big move coming for Lexington Farmers Market: Where will new weekday location be?
Changes are coming for one of Lexington’s most popular institutions. Beginning in 2024, Lexington Farmers Market will have to move its Tuesday-Thursday morning market from the corner of Broadway and Maxwell, where it’s been for decades.
The empty corner lot will be needed for construction vehicles working on the coming High Street development project, which could begin next year.
That means the local farmer vendors and their fresh produce for sale have to go.
John Garey of Garey Farms, who is president of the Lexington Farmers Market board, said that Lexington Center Corporation, the entity that runs Rupp Arena, Lexington Convention Center and the Lexington Opera House, has given them a December deadline to leave the corner.
The weekday market usually ends in November, so this year likely will not be impacted, Garey said. But next year will be a different story.
One possibility has emerged: Relocating the weekday (and possibly the winter) market to National Avenue.
Developer Chad Walker said that he has proposed turning an empty lot on National at the end of Ashland Avenue next to Mirror Twin into a paved parking lot with amenities that the Lexington Farmers Market could use during the week in the spring, summer and fall, and on weekends in the winter.
Walker said that he wants to create a market-friendly space, possibly with an indoor area.
Just off Winchester Road, National Avenue has been a thriving restaurant, bar and retail scene for several years, stretching from Waller Avenue with Epping’s and El Cid to Mirror Twin Brewing and Rolling Oven and beyond into the Kenwick neighborhood.
Garey said in June that the board has not yet voted on the change.
“That has been an offer, as we know we’ll be losing our current site with redevelopment, so that is a possibility, but nothing has been decided at this point,” Garey said.
The market’s regular Saturday morning location on Main Street, Sunday mid-day location on Southland Drive and Wednesday afternoon/evening location in Gardenside on Alexandria Drive are not impacted.
In May, Lexington Center Corporation signed a deal with The Webb Companies and Dallas-Based Lincoln Property Company to redevelop the 17-acre parking lot across from the newly renovated Central Bank Center and Rupp Arena on West High Street.
The project will include a hotel, apartments, retail and a downtown grocery store, as well as five parking garages, one of which will be on the corner lot used by the farmers market for more than 20 years.
