Grocery-starved Bay Ridge will soon get its first farmer’s market — and the fruit and vegetable venders will set up in the former Key Food parking lot, The Brooklyn Paper has learned.
Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge) will reveal at a press conference on Monday afternoon at the corner of Third Avenue and 95th Street — where the now-closed grocery will soon become a Walgreens — that the site has been chosen to host the green market, an agricultural insider told The Paper
Construction at Walgreens will start in January, and the chain drug store will likely not open until June, Gentile said at a Community Board 10 meeting earlier this month.
This temporary farmer’s market won’t be Bay Ridge’s first attempt to cultivate produce peddlers.
Venders sold greens in Leif Ericsson Park at the corner of 67th Street and Fourth Avenue in the late 1990s, but the satiating souk closed after two years because of low turnout.
In April, Gentile tried to plant a farmer’s market in the parking lot of the Our Lady of the Angel’s church on Fourth Avenue and 74th Street, but the house of worship chopped down the proposal because it didn’t want to sacrifice its lot.
It is unclear why Gentile and Greenmarket officials believe they will be successful this time, but demand for organic produce in Bay Ridge is on the rise. Not only are residents meeting to form their own Park Slope Food Co-op-style food market, but the closure of Key Food earlier this year has left that part of the neighborhood with a well-documented veggie void.
Representatives from Walgreens could not be reached for comment.
