How the farmers market move paid off — and is helping remake a Capitol Hill street

Five years after the Capitol Hill Farmers Market moved from the crowded sidewalks of Broadway to the plaza and festival street beside Capitol Hill Station, organizers and vendors say the transition has transformed not only the market itself but the surrounding public space that now serves as one of Capitol Hill’s busiest neighborhood gathering places.

A look back — and forward — at the move comes as community groups and the city seem to have settled on the E Barbara Bailey Way stretch of Denny between the park and the station as a growing center of neighborhood activity.

The move, completed in 2021 during the lows of the pandemic, relocated the longtime market from the sidewalks outside Seattle Central College to a purpose-built plaza integrated into the light rail station development. For executive director Jennifer Antos, the timing made the transition uniquely complicated.

“Wild times, for sure,” Antos said. “The challenge of moving a market exists even in ‘normal times,’ because you’re reorienting customers and vendors to essentially a new store location. But we were also doing it during the uncertainty and upheaval of the pandemic.”

At the time, outdoor markets were also becoming increasingly important as shoppers searched for safer ways to buy groceries and spend time outdoors during COVID restrictions. Organizers found themselves balancing an influx of new shoppers while trying to maintain relationships with longtime customers already familiar with the Broadway location.

“We made that move during a time when markets were being put on the radar of new people because they were looking for safe outdoor spaces to get food,” Antos said. “But then also trying to retain customers who had been really loyal to the market for many years.” Still, Antos said the organization never seriously considered delaying the relocation. “Looking back, really, really glad that we didn’t wait to move it,” she said.

The market’s roots stretch back more than two decades. Planning by the Neighborhood Farmers Markets nonprofit for the original market in the area began in 2004 as part of a broader effort to revitalize Broadway involving the mayor’s office, the Capitol Hill Chamber, the Broadway Business Improvement Area, and the Office of Economic Development. The market officially opened in 2005 in the a Bank of America parking lot at Broadway and Thomas.

By 2008, redevelopment pressure on Capitol Hill meant the Bank of America site and surrounding properties were slated for redevelopment. The market relocated in 2011 to the sidewalks outside Seattle Central and officially became the Capitol Hill Farmers Market.

Even then, organizers understood the sidewalk setup would likely be temporary. “The market would have a home in the new transit development site,” Antos said. “But of course it took so many more years than originally planned, community engagement, construction delays, all of that.”

In 2012, the Capitol Hill Champion community engagement process around the development above the planned Capitol Hill Station identified securing a permanent home for the market as one of the neighborhood’s top priorities. Six years later, Neighborhood Farmers Markets received a USDA grant supporting relocation planning and promotion before the market finally moved into its current home in 2021.

For Antos, the word that best defines the move is stability. “It’s one of our only markets that has that kind of stability and long-term outlook,” she said. “That enables so much for us in terms of future planning and purpose-built infrastructure.” That infrastructure includes permanent storage, lighting, electrical access, water hookups, seating, and safety equipment, investments Antos says many neighborhood markets across Seattle still lack.

“At our other neighborhood markets, we have to transport large street barricades each week to safely close the street,” Antos wrote in a follow-up email. “In Capitol Hill, we have permanent storage for these and don’t waste resources on gas, staff time, and vehicle maintenance.”

The organization argues those investments represent more than convenience. “Permanent farmers market infrastructure is not a luxury,” Antos wrote. “It is foundational civic infrastructure that advances food security, economic development, climate resilience, and public health.”

The permanent location has also changed the feel of the market itself. “The phrase that comes to mind for me is human scale,” Antos said. “When we were on the sidewalk, you were swallowed by the chaos of Broadway traffic.”

At the old location, vendors operated only feet from moving traffic and parallel parking. The current plaza setup allows shoppers to linger, eat, and move through the market more comfortably while creating additional room for vendors and pedestrians.

Nina Birkenfeld, current Capitol Hill Farmers Market manager and a former vendor who worked with businesses including Sea Wolf Bakers and Sno-Valley Mushrooms, said the new location functions much better for vendors.

“It seems like a more dedicated space for vendors to do their business,” Birkenfeld said. “The sidewalks are a public space, and creating a space that doesn’t get in the way of sidewalk operations has been great as a vendor.”

Birkenfeld said the plaza’s openness, sunlight, and connection to nearby green space fundamentally changed how people experience the market.

“It’s really lovely having the sunlight, having there be a park right here,” they said. “It seems to incorporate the community more into what we’re trying to accomplish here.”

Those qualities are also part of the reason E Barbara Bailey Way is being lined up for new gatherings, events, and experiments in making more streets in Seattle safer and more useful for pedestrians, cyclists, and anybody not behind the wheel. CHS reported here on organizing efforts around creating a new Capitol Hill people street on the site.

Back at the market, the Capitol Hill effort has grown substantially since the move, according to Birkenfeld. “There’s been a lot of growth in the market since that time too,” they said. “We’ve been able to add more vendors.”

“The Capitol Hill Farmers Market feels like a community gathering,” said vendor Kevin Helfrick of Hell or High Water Farm, who began selling at the Capitol Hill market shortly after the move in 2021. “I love the atmosphere and the customers. There is quite literally never a dull moment.”

Helfrick said the location next to light rail and Cal Anderson Park has helped make the market feel part of the surrounding neighborhood. “I love how central and connected the current location is,” Helfrick said. “Customers can literally hop off at our stop and emerge into a bustling marketplace.” The market’s visibility and transit access have also expanded opportunities for newer farms and food businesses, he said.

“The Capitol Hill Farmers Market has been a wonderful place to expand my business and grow my customer base,” Helfrick said. “I have seen several newer farms and food businesses come in over the years now and be able to do the same.”

Organizers say being directly adjacent to light rail has also expanded the market’s accessibility while helping connect Seattle’s broader network of neighborhood farmers markets.

“We hear from customers in the U District that if they can’t shop at the University District Farmers Market on Saturday, they are taking the light rail to show up at Capitol Hill on Sunday,” Antos said.

Birkenfeld said transit access and the open festival street layout have significantly increased foot traffic. “Yes, there are more people,” they said. “Having the street open like this makes it incredibly accessible.”

The market’s new home has also improved day-to-day operations and safety for vendors loading in and out of the market. “I think it’s safer here, because we’re not on a busy street,” Birkenfeld said. “The street is closed.” At the old Broadway location, vendors often had to compete for limited street parking while working around traffic and transit routes.

“It used to be that as a vendor, you would park on the street,” Birkenfeld said. “If the streetcar came by then you’d have to move, and that was really tricky.”

The location has also helped Neighborhood Farmers Markets launch a Tuesday evening market on Capitol Hill designed to serve commuters, workers, and residents traveling through the station area after work.

The Tuesday market runs June 2nd through September 29th from 3 to 7 PM, and organizers say building support for it is one of their biggest priorities moving forward. “Weekends are busy,” Antos said. “We’re hoping to grow and sustain that Tuesday market.”

The market has helped pioneer changes for the area. The plaza and festival street regularly host neighborhood events, informal gatherings, and community programming tied to the park and station plaza.

Neighborhood Farmers Markets now shares barricades, lighting equipment, ramps, and other infrastructure with community groups activating the surrounding plaza and festival street. “Markets always seem to attract activity,” Antos said.

For Helfrick, that activity and sense of ritual are what make the market more than simply a place to buy groceries. “A customer once told me that they didn’t see shopping at the market the same way they see grocery shopping, even if that is indeed what they are doing,” Helfrick said. “They saw it as a sort of religious event, a ritual you partake in to visit your neighborhood farmers market and check in with the farmers who have become your friends.”

“I really liked that,” he said. “The market is so much more than a marketplace. We are building community.” Looking ahead, Antos said the organization’s goals remain centered around maintaining the market as both a dependable food source and civic gathering space.

“We want to see that space be the heart of what’s going on on the Hill,” Antos said, “particularly in the summer months, but all year round.”

Find the market at E Barbara Bailey Way and Broadway. You can learn more about the Capitol Hill Farmers Market at seattlefarmersmarkets.org/chfm.

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