The Delhi Downtown Development Authority has purchased the adjacent lot south of the Holt Farmers Market and plans to develop the property starting this spring. The new addition will nearly double the space of the market and the available parking, and there will be room for at least ten new vendors year-round.
“We’ve been wanting to expand for the last five years,” said the market’s Manager Chuck Grinnell. “An architect drew up a plan for us, but that was cost prohibitive. When the opportunity came up to buy the land next door and renovate the buildings, we took it.” The project is funded with dollars from the DDA and some leftover funds from Realize Cedar Street. The DDA hopes that construction will begin in the spring and wrap up as early as August. The expansion is necessary because popular events on the property, like the Friday night Cruise to Holt, have run out of room.
“We’ll be doing more of the same, but we’ll add some new programs that we haven’t done before. We’ll expand the Food Frenzys and have more accessible parking. The car shows will be bigger, and we’ll get the demo kitchen up and running again,” said Grinnell. Demonstrations from Michigan State University’s Extension programs will be focused on cooking, canning, and more.
Grinnell has been at the helm of the farmers market since its inception 15 years ago after he retired from the Fire Department. “My wife and I had just retired, and we were supposed to be moving up to the lake. A friend of mine came to me and said, ‘We think you’re our guy for the market.’ I told him that I would do it if I could have the old fire station building.” Although Chuck says that the past 15 years have included some of “the weird and the wacky,” he couldn’t be prouder of the work they’ve done and the work that is to come.
“The DDA has funded the farmers market from day one. Fifteen years later, we’re celebrating that. It’s hard to believe we’ve been going for that long and even harder to believe that I’m still here, running it. Sometimes my wife and I look at each other and say, “Did you ever think?”
The Holt Farmers Market is open year-round on Saturdays. It is located at 2150 Cedar St, Holt, MI 48842. Call (517) 268-0024 or visit holtfarmersmarket.org for more information.