The Market
Should the Lincoln Road Farmer’s Market Move?

By Lee Molloy

It’s become a Miami Beach institution, really.

Since 1997, there The Lincoln Road Farmers Market, between Meridian and Washington Avenues, has been open between 9 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. every Sunday. It quickly became a regular date for Miami Beach residents who want their produce farm fresh. The market has even evolved to offer a fully organic section located in front of the Lincoln Theatre on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue.

However, at the July 1 Miami Beach Land Use and Development Committee meeting, many of the 20 market vendors who regularly sell their produce at the farmers market and their supporters found themselves sitting in a crowded conference room to fight a proposal by city staff to move their market to Collins Park, between 21st and 22nd Streets on the west side of Collins Avenue.

Assistant City Manager Hilda Fernandez explained that the Collins Park Neighborhood Association had approved the concept of moving the market.

“The real genesis of all these markets has been to drive foot traffic,” Fernandez said, referring to the fact that the Lincoln Road Green Market had been an initiative to get people to come back to the mall and revitalize the road.  

Ray Breslin, President Of the Collins Park Neighborhood Association (CPNA), argued in favor of bringing the market to his neighborhood.

The locations of the booths on “Lincoln Road is very disjointed,” Breslin said. “People would like to have everything close together.”

Community activist Frank Del Vecchio opined that the market should not be moved, although he did express sympathy for the CPNA’s agenda.

“They want to activate the neighborhood,” Del Vecchio said, “and their intentions are laudable.”

The land use committee was presented with a petition signed by more than 1,000 people supporting the current location of the market.

Ivan Rojas, who sells fruits and vegetables, was one of the first vendors to set up shop at the Lincoln Road location. He explained that his booth sells 50 or 60 types of organic merchandise and that his fresh produce is sold to the restaurants around Lincoln Road, which supports the neighborhood economy.

Rojas, however, was not opposed to having a market in Collins Park, but as a new venture, not a move of the current one. “We are very happy to help out over at Collins Park,” he said.

The Lincoln Road Green Market is operated by The Market Company, which is owned by Claire Tomlin, who also runs the Espanola Way Street Market, The Normandy Village Street Market and the Antiques and Collectables market, which also calls Lincoln Road home.

Tomlin, against moving the Green Market, believes the move would alienate customers. The vendors “rely on the market to sustain their families,” she said. However, she also supports starting a new market. “We would like to work with the City to develop a business plan for Collins Park.”

The guaranteed minimum paid to the City of Miami Beach by The Market Company, Inc. is $8,400 or 15 percent of the gross, whichever is greater. From 2007 to 2008 the city received just over $10,000 from the market.

“It just seems like a really cheap deal to me,” Commissioner Saul Gross said.

Because the cost of the booths is only between $50 and $85 per day, Commissioner Victor Diaz was quick to defend the management company.

“The people that are making money is not the management company, it’s the vendors,” Diaz said. “Maybe the city should be dictating what the fees should be.”

Commissioner Jonah Wolfson’s diction made his position very clear.

“It’s insane to destroy the vendors ability to earn a living,” Wolfson said. “If we advocate to get rid of [the green market] we seem anti-business and insane.”

By pointing out that the change wouldn’t happen until 2010, Assistant City Manager Fernandez defended staff’s recommendation to move the market. Wolfson, however, wasn’t convinced.

“Lincoln Road is a business animal that works,” Wolfson said. “Stay away from messing with it.”

Ultimately, the committee agreed to renew the lease with the Green Market on Lincoln Road, with the condition that the administration must work to increase either the percentage of earnings or the minimum guarantee paid to the city.

The fate of a market at Collins Park was deferred in order to give staff time to explore the potential of a “mini-market” being set up there, perhaps revolving locations with other small markets at South Pointe Elementary School and Espanola Way.

Happy to see a resolution to the issue, one busy person at the meeting brought a smile to the faces of those present.

“I don’t shop at the green market,” Mayor Matti Bower said, “because I don’t cook anymore.”

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