Flint Farmers' Market
The Pitch
Organizers of the Flint Farmers’ Market moved the struggling market to a new venue downtown and expanded the market’s size, bringing in many more vendors and visitors and reviving the downtown area.
The Problem
The Flint Farmers’ Market was on the verge of closure. The market was held in an old and degraded facility and was losing shoppers.
The Process
- Brought the farmers’ market back from the brink of closure by relocating the market closer to downtown
- Performed a $34.5 million renovation of two vacant buildings to house the new market
- Expanded the market by bringing in new vendors
- Created a health and wellness district
The Impact
- Doubled the number of vendors and visitors by expanding the market, a change that brought hundreds of thousands of people to downtown Flint
- Enabled some vendors to permanently relocate to downtown Flint by opening brick-and-mortar stores
- Attracted more foot traffic to Flint’s urban center and brought $100 million in investments to fuel development of new buildings and retail establishments
- Named the sixth greatest public space on the American Planning Association’s annual Great Places in America list
