Jim LeTendre of Bear Creek, North Carolina, sells at five farmers’ markets a week, some of them in parking lots and some under covered structures. From his own sales records, he can attest to the value of covered markets.

“In an uncovered market on a rainy day, you can expect to do 60% of your usual business,” Jim said. “With a covered farmers’ market, you can expect 85%. It’s a big difference – 25% of the trade you could do in a day.”

Sandy Arnold of Argyle, New York, has found that rain can decrease sales for a produce grower from 30% to 50% in an open market. “But the buildings keep customers coming and keep customers happy,” she said. “They will come in the rain because they know they can stand in here and shop and socialize.”

Covered markets also benefit farmers by allowing them to start selling earlier in s pring and keep selling longer into the fall. “It was 37 degrees and snowing and raining here today, and we were still able to go to market. It’s really fantastic to have a closed structure,” said Jen Bokaer-Smith on May 18, after selling that day at the covered market in Ithaca, New York.

Although the vast majority of farmers’ market sellers in the United States are still at the mercy of the weather for their sales, covered markets are becoming increasingly popular. As markets succeed and mature, many communities are seeing the value of providing a permanent building for them.

Covered markets that have been built in the last decade range from simple pole barns covering a few dozen stalls to elaborate, multi-use facilities built as part of extensive urban redevelopment projects. Here’s a look at some examples, in the order of their cost, beginning with the least expensive:

Simple but adequate
The farmers’ market in Pittsboro, North Carolina, started with just a few growers six or seven years ago, but quickly grew to about 20 regulars. Chatham County, where Pittsboro is located, is one of the few places in the nation where the number of farms is growing – a 10% increase in the past decade, Jim LeTendre said. So the state department of agriculture was willing to invest $10,000 in a market structure, and the market association had $2,500 to spend.

The vendors called around to see what they could build with that amount of money, and they ended up with a pole barn that is about 30 feet wide and 120 feet long. It provides 10 covered stalls on each side, for a total of 20, with a 12-foot-wide aisle for customers. A concrete floor would have more than doubled the cost, so the vendors settled for a packed pea gravel floor. The structure is on the county fairgrounds, and there are public restrooms nearby. The building has open sides and closed eaves, and is roofed with green metal. It didn’t have electricity, although that was added later by the fair board. It is admittedly a bare-bones structure, but Jim says it was good value for the money.

“It’s very adequate,” Jim said. “It keeps the heat off you, and on a rainy day you’ll see little decrease in traffic.”

If they should have done anything differently, Jim said, it would be to make the stalls narrower to accommodate more vendors. The stalls are 12 feet wide, because of the 12-foot spacing of the 6×6 wooden poles that hold up the metal trusses. Jim said they could have put the posts 10 feet apart, which would have added a bit to the cost but provided an extra four stalls.

Perhaps the best feature of the structure, apart from its low cost, was that it was built in a matter of days, without having to close or relocate the market during construction.

Style and substance
The farmers’ market pavilions in Saratoga Springs, New York, can accommodate up to 52 vendors. A full stall is 16 feet wide, between the poles, but 8-foot-wide half stalls are also available. This year, about 32 vendors are expected, Sandy Arnold said.

The pavilions were built in 1999 on city land behind City Hall in Saratoga’s historic downtown. The land is parkland, so the city didn’t want to pave it for the market. Instead, the floors in the buildings are crushed stone. It does not have electricity, but does have a bathroom.

The 32-foot-width of the pavilions allows for 16-foot-wide center aisles, which vendors considered necessary so that customers would have room to socialize, which is an essential component of the success of most farmers’ markets. That leaves 8 feet for each vendor’s display. Farmers back up to the stalls, and only part of the truck is under the roof, but the vendors, their tables and the customers are all protected from wind and sun.

The Saratoga farmers’ market pavilions cost about $50,000. The money came from a private foundation and a local environmental organization, said Carl Deppe, a produce farmer who helped develop the market plans. Because the market association didn’t have a 501(c)3 tax status enabling it to accept charitable donations, the money had to be given to the city. Now the city owns the buildings and the market association pays about $5,000 a year rent.

“It’s been a fantastic success,” Carl said. “It allowed the market to grow. We doubled the size of the market in terms of number of vendors and it made for a big increase in business. We have a much broader diversity of products than ever before. The market really became something special.”

More money, more style
In Carrboro, North Carolina, 15 miles from Pittsboro and next to the university town of Chapel Hill, the popular farmers’ market has been under cover since 1996, said Alex Hitt of Peregrine Farm, who sells there. The structure was built by the town government as part of a multi-use complex that includes the town bandstand. Picture the city land as a baseball diamond; the farmers’ market pavilions are along the first and third baselines, and the bandstand is home plate.
The pavilions are open sided, with skylights at the eaves to increase natural light. Stalls are 10 feet wide and provide coverage for 32 of the 80 vendors who sell at the Carrboro market.
The structure cost more than $300,000, Alex said, most of it from the town, but with significant contributions from the vendors’ association.

Keeping costs down
Ithaca’s covered market was built in 1989 by a forward-looking vendors’ association. It’s a tall, clerestory style structure with 96 stalls, restrooms and a small market manager’s office. The building was erected with volunteer labor – mostly the vendors themselves but also some community members, said Monica Roth of Cornell Cooperative Extension. The market association got an $88,000 grant from the state and contributed some of its own funds for the first phase of the building.

In the years since, many additional improvements have been made. A dock was added to the site, which is on the waterfront of Cayuga Lake. Electricity, lights and a floor were added. Monica estimates that the cost, excluding labor, now totals $160,000. If the market association had paid someone else to build it, it would probably have cost $400,000, she said.

The style of building has worked well, Monica said. “It’s the best market building I’ve seen.”
Carl Deppe agreed. “Ithaca sets the standard for all these covered markets,” he said.

Urban redevelopment
At the expensive end of the spectrum is the farmers’ market in Little Rock, Arkansas, built as part of a $300 million redevelopment project along the Arkansas River. Overlooking the river are two pavilions, each 58 by 118 feet and able to accommodate a total of 80 growers. The open-sided pavilions have wooden trusses, with hanging fans and lights. The farmers’ market is held every Tuesday and Saturday from the end of April to the end of October. The pavilions are also rented out for other events such as class reunions, wedding receptions and corporate picnics. More than 200 such events are scheduled each year. In winter, an ice rink is set up on one of the pavilions.
Near the pavilions is an indoor market hall with permanent food vendors such as a fish market, meat market, Middle Eastern and Mexican grocery stores, coffee shops and restaurants.

The combination of year-round market and seasonal farmers’ markets has gone a long way toward revitalizing the Little Rock riverfront, organizers say.