New farmers market will anchor Coleman Blvd. revitalization

Big changes are in store for the popular weekly Farmers Market on Coleman Boulevard, which is considered a centerpiece of the town's boulevard revitalization effort.

"In a lot of ways this is a catalyst for that redevelopment," said Lee Gastly, director of landscape architecture for Seamon, Whitesides and Associates. Construction is planned to begin in the first week of November, Gastley said.

For 11 years, the market has been housed in a tent city that comes and goes on Tuesdays. But beginning next April, the market will have a new, permanent home that is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $1 million.

The market typically draws about 400 people for shopping, entertainment and food. "It's a real social hour," said Ashley McKenzie, market manager. When not in use as the market, the facility can be used for other town-sponsored events, she said. "There's a lot of possibilities with this," she said.

A request for bids for the project is scheduled to be published in the Sunday editions of The Post and Courier, Gastley said. The 1.5-acre site at the corner of Coleman Boulevard and Simmons Street will have two pavilions, each housing 16 fresh produce vendors, as well as an outdoor classroom for the new Moultrie Middle School now under construction.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier