December 11, 2003


To market, to market—until parking takes over

Parking issues cause popular Farmer’s Market holiday closure

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

For years, the Blossom Hill Certified Farmer’s Market has been a fixture in the parking lot at Princeton Plaza Mall, open every Sunday rain or shine, and filled with local farmers peddling freshly picked produce and flowers along with baked breads and other homegrown niceties. The longstanding tradition also sees vendors pack up their wares after Thanksgiving, not returning until the first of the year.

According to those who visit the market for their produce on a weekly basis, the farmers are sorely missed and many question the need to shut down at all. If they had their way, most of the farmers would rather operate year-round as well. But there’s apparently a bigger issue at stake—and it’s all about space.

According to longtime shopper Charlotte Ferree, conflicting stories arise as to who is responsible for the closure—be it a mall management decision or requests from Mervyns’s for the additional parking spaces—or both. “Regardless of who’s calling the shots, the bottom line is the farmers would like to stay open year round if mall management would give them the green light,” she says. “Apparently, there has been no communication one way or the other this year, so they decided to close as usual.”

Purchased by Pan-Cal Corporation in November 2000, Princeton Plaza Mall is managed by Leonard Hufton, who explains that the original owner had an agreement with the Farmer’s Market to cease operations during the holidays to provide additional parking for Mervyns’s, their anchor store, as well as Michaels, Party America and others who share the same parking lot. “That’s what the operator of the farmer’s market had agreed to and it’s been an ongoing tradition,” he says. “We haven’t changed anything. I’m sure if we would envision having more room for them, they would want to stay, but I would prefer to keep it the way it is.”

According to Doug Hayden, manager of the Farmer’s Market, the decision to shut down was initially made by the mall’s original owner, Don Perrucci, who reflected the feelings of Mervyns and didn’t want to impact the increased need for parking spaces during the holidays. The decision has remained that way for many years. “Every year, we would call and ask them to re-think keeping the market open,” says Hayden. “Mervyns every time has come through and said categorically ‘no way.’ They fear the market will consume parking spaces and make it too hard to shop there.”

According to Mervyns’s spokesperson Leanne Furman, closing down the market during the holidays has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the mall management. “We do not own the building,” she says. “Any decision regarding the parking lot is made by them.”

When ownership changed two years ago, Hayden hoped they would reconsider the so-called “tradition.” He contacted Hufton again last month, asking if he would reconsider keeping the market open on a trial basis. “We never heard back and presumed they had made the decision not to keep it open,” he adds. “So we shut down. It is hard for some of the growers who would like to keep going. We try to do what we can to help our farmers but we are stalled at this point.”

Hayden is pushing for a study to see how many of the spaces are in fact being used at that end of the parking lot during the holidays during times when the market would be operational. If adequate parking is found to be available, the market could operate next year without negatively impacting the merchants and could potentially increase sales by bringing in additional shoppers. “It could be a win-win situation,” he says. “But without the study, personally I don’t see how the mall can change their policy yet.”

Hayden says an estimated 40 to 100 parking spaces are needed for the market to stay operational, in addition to the area secured for the market itself. The study would determine whether or not the loss of those spaces between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sundays would negatively impact shoppers visiting the mall stores during the holidays. According to Hayden, if things did in fact work out, the rewards would come in the way of an additional 1,200 to 1,500 shoppers who would be visiting the mall for their produce and possibly decide to stay and Christmas shop at the same time.

“I spoke to quite a few of the stores and they said it would hinder their operations during the holidays,” says Hufton. “It’s probably going to be an even split.”

“They don’t want to close,” adds Ferree. “They loose their clientele to other markets in the area and it takes three months for them to build it back up again. It would be nice if they could get a definitive answer here instead of going year to year.”