Downtown Albuquerque News reported today about exciting plans by the Downtown Growers Market to create a year-round indoor facility for the growers and vendors to sell their wares near Robinson Park, where the market is held every Saturday morning in warmer months. The outdoor market would continue at Robinson Park even with the new facility.
The market is run by the DowntownABQ MainStreet Association. In the association's monthly newsletter for August put out last week it was first announced that they were looking for a property within close walking distance to the park for the new facility. And today it was reported by DAN that they are planning to buy the old Cafe Oaxaca property at 10th and Central for the project. The existing structure is going to be demolished, after suffering a fire earlier this year. It's been vacant for nearly two decades.
Today's story says that they estimate this will be a 5-10 million-dollar project. The story also gives details on what is being planned for the new facility. It will be built in cooperation with Three Sisters Kitchen, which may move from its current location on Gold Avenue to the new structure.
https://downtownalbuquerquenews.com/
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One of the most prominent vacant and rundown properties on Central is set to get a new lease on life.
The Downtown Growers' Market, which brings nearby Robinson Park to life every Saturday, and Three Sisters Kitchen, which trains people looking to start food businesses from its headquarters near Gold and First, are on the cusp of buying the old Café Oaxaca property, following a roughly 18-year stint in which the building sat vacant.
The short-term plan is to knock down the building, said Lola Bird, the executive director of DowntownABQ Main Street, the market's parent organization. That could happen in a matter of days - before the property even formally transfers ownership.
After that, the two groups will ramp up what is essentially a community-wide focus group, asking neighbors, Greater Downtown residents, and people who have worked with the organizations in the past exactly what they would like to see happen at the site. That feedback will inform the design of the building and help establish how much it might cost.
But if many of the details are yet to be hammered out, there is a broader vision for what would happen there, and it includes:
A local food shop. Open perhaps five days per week, it would feature products from growers' market vendors, associates of Three Sisters Kitchen, and others.
A café. Three Sisters would run it, just as it ran a similar pre-pandemic operation out of its headquarters on Gold, said Anzia Bennett, the organization's executive director.
A production kitchen for new and emerging food entrepreneurs. (Three Sisters students in particular tend to focus on manufactured food products - things that wind up on grocery store shelves.)
Classroom space for the groups involved but also potentially others who might want to use it.
A pavilion that can, with a few adjustments, be made to work as an indoor or semi-outdoor space.
The growers' market and Three Sisters estimate the cost of the buildout at $5-10 million, with a more exact figure available upon completion of the design, something that itself will be informed by community feedback. Bird said they plan to launch the fundraising effort this fall and anticipate asking an array of private, state, city, and federal sources for help. They would also likely take out some debt to finance the project, paying it back with the revenues from the new business ventures.
Even when built, the growers' market will keep its Saturday morning post in Robinson Park, Bird said. But whether Three Sisters will stay in its headquarters on Gold is still to be determined, Bennett added.
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Here's the original announcement about the project from the association's monthly
Crossroads newsletter.
https://www.abqmainstreet.org/
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The Downtown Growers' Market is exploring an expansion project that will allow for a year-round market. In partnership with Three Sisters Kitchen we are working to purchase a lot within walking distance of Robinson Park that will offer an expansion of Robinson Park during the regular season (April-November) and then host a market on site during the Robinson Park off-season (November-April). This space will be multi-use with a new building to accomodate a variety of growth needs for both organizations. We have hired non-profit architecture firm, MASS, to head the project and are in the process of retrieving community feedback on the space. The survey is available in both English and Spanish. Pass this on to anyone interested in sharing feedback!
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Here's the link to the survey for the new Downtown Growers Market facility:
https://abqmainstreet.us11.list-manage.c...4b2c4a08433c7&id=8bbde09ce0&e=acb1615f67
And here are a few pictures of the Downtown Growers Market at Robinson Park from Google.
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