ATHENS, Ohio — After over 50 years in existence, the Athens Farmers Market is building a permanent home — one it will share with the Athens community in perpetuity.
The farmers market’s Athens Community Pavilion campaign is underway, fundraising for a permanent dedicated area for the Athens Farmers Market and Athens Art Guild at the Athens Community Center at701 E. State St. Partners in the campaign include the city, Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet), Athens County Foundation, BDT Architects & Designers, and Passion Works Studio.
The proposed pavilion will unite the market’s vendors, who currently sell both indoors at the community center and outdoors in its parking lot.
The dedicated facility will also provide shelter, heat and additional electrical hookups at 40 vendor spots. The Athens Community Pavilion also will be available for use through the city when the market isn’t taking place.
Campaign project manager Susie Huser told the Independent that the pavilion will be located east of the community center. Construction for the project, its first phase, will hopefully begin this year, she said.
“The new parking lot for the pavilion is going to be approximately where the broken tennis courts are right now, and it’s in that corner between the solar panel lot and the community center,” she said.
Fundraising efforts for the pavilion are being managed by the farmers market, while “the city of Athens is providing space, providing land for the build, and the city is going to take on management of the building after it is constructed,” Huser said.
The campaign has a $1 million goal and a community investment goal of $150,000, she said. It has raised over $40,000 thus far.
“We have approximately $800,000 out in grant requests right now, so we’re piecing things together,” Huser said.
According to Athens City-Service Director Andy Stone, the state earmarked $300,000 to the city in its latest biennial budget for an “agricultural initiative,” not specific to the farmers market, that could go towards the pavilion.
“The state appropriation has a shot clock on it, and Athens is expected to deliver something,” Stone said in an email. “While it is the current thinking to apply this toward the pavilion, the city must be confident in the ability of any project to be successful prior to committing to it fully. We will work with [the Ohio Department of Development] to determine any other funding requirements.”
The pavilion will remain city property. The farmers market currently has a facility use agreement with the city, though “it remains to be seen what the long-term agreement will be in the future,” Stone wrote. He noted a provision in city code that dedicates a portion of the community center to the farmers market.
The pavilion is the product of decades of collaboration, research and brainstorming, ACEnet Director of Programs & Business Development Leslie Schaller told the Independent.
“I think we’ve finally gotten to the culmination of our partnership with the city and our ability to leverage the investment we need to build a pavilion that we’ve been trying to fund, really, since 2007,” Schaller said. “There’s just been so many different community-level and city-level partners that have gotten us to this stage.”
Schaller has worked in food systems for nearly 50 years. She said the new pavilion is “going to be a facility that really accommodates a lot of community needs and … underscores a sort of unique aspect of our community … A lot of communities do not have this level of collaboration.”
Schaller described the farmers market as “the crossroads of community.”
The farmers market has 60 members and draws thousands of visitors during peak season each weekend, Tonya Hire, manager of the Athens Farmers Market, said.
Between 1998 and 2022, the farmers market was set up in the parking lot of the Market on State. The move to the Athens Community Center in 2022 created a more central, “homier” feel and “community vibe … than you did just sitting in the middle of a concrete parking lot,” Hire said.
The farmers market continues to hear feedback from both vendors and customers who desire more “green space,” Hire said — areas with grass, trees and seating.
“A top priority for us is to preserve as much green space as possible,” Hire said. “The green spaces between the tennis court and the parking lot now should stay intact … behind the pavilion will be green space as well.”
Because vendors will be in a pavilion, not a parking lot, there will be more room for visitors, Hire said.
“Another big thing with the pavilion is, we’re taking up parking spots right currently, right? So we’re going to — basically that whole area will become available to customers, rather than just half of it right now,” Hire said.
Schaller said the pavilion will “be a great asset for the market to continue to grow.”
Both Hire and Schaller noted that the farmers market is more than a venue for businesses — it’s also a space where neighbors can support one another, offering resources and knowledge.
“It just is a win-win in terms of growing a local, regional food economy,” Schaller said. “This pavilion will just be one more illustration of what happens when people partner in this community.”
The pavilion “says to the community that we’re here to stay, we’re here to serve you,” Hire said. “We plan to continue being here, as part of the community, indefinitely.”
The Athens Farmers Market is open 9 a.m.–noon Saturdays year-round and Wednesday mornings April–November. Visit its website for more information.
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