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The Need for a Permanent Home and Building for the Santa Fe Farmers Market
The result of a feasibility study and business plan commissioned by the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute found that:
- Consumers at the Santa Fe Farmers Market spend approximately $2 million purchasing directly from Market vendors.
- At the peak of the 2003 summer season, the Market Operations Manager estimated that 6,000 customers visited the Market during a busy Saturday morning.
- The Santa Fe Farmers Market started as a casual gathering in the late nineteen sixties. Forty years later it is one of the premier farmers’ markets in the country.
- Since its move to the Railyard in 1985, the Santa Fe Farmers Market has grown 10% per year.
- Since its inception, the Santa Fe Farmers Market has had six locations.
- Build a permanent home for the Santa Fe Farmers Market that will provide a cost-effective retail opportunity, allowing growers to sell their products on a year-round basis.
- Include income generating components in the building, to cover all maintenance costs associated with the building and to provide long-term revenue needed to develop programs which assist growers. This will in turn encourage and support young and emerging agricultural producers.
- To provide a community-based event center when the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market is not running, one that will be available to all of our community’s nonprofits, and especially those that focus on agriculture, land and water issues, sustainable lifestyles, environmental issues and locally-based economic development.
Why does the Market need a building?
The Santa Fe Farmers’ Market has had six temporary locations since it started back in the late 1960s. Plus, over the last few years, we have moved indoors to various locations during the winter. Moving around so much makes it hard for customers to find us, which affects sales for growers. Our new site will allow the Market to stay in one place year-'round to stabilize and increase its customer base, and to provide shelter during cold or bad weather. Plus, we'll be able to get rid of the porta-potties and offer our customers real amenities and conveniences!
Additionally, the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation, which is developing the property, requires that a building be built on Lot H. This actually works in our favor, as the building will generate revenue that will cover all operating costs associated with the building, and will help to keep costs down for the Market and its vendors. Without the building, the lease for the lot alone would be too expensive for the Market to bear.
Farmer rates will not increase!
The Board of Directors of both the Market and the Institute agree that what makes the Market so special is the diversity of its vendors. Special attention has been paid to designing and creating a building that will not increase costs for the farmers. The Institute has capped the Market’s cost for the first three years of operation in the new building at $20,000 per year with minimal cost of living increases in rent thereafter. Additionally, any vendor, regardless of his/her ability to pay for their vending space, will be admitted, provided he/she meets the Market’s criteria to be a registered vendor. Amenities for our customers can be improved while supporting what makes the Market so great in the first place - its vendors!
The benefits of stability
A year-round commercial space for farmers will also be good for the community and surrounding area. The Market currently generates about $2 million in sales annually. Studies show that for every dollar spent at the Market, an additional $3 is spent in the surrounding community. No wonder the Railyard wanted the Market to be their anchor tenant! We’ll create a wonderful public space, and our 180,000 customers a year will also stoke the economic vitality of the Railyard and City of Santa Fe.
