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Farmers market coming to Sixth Avenue

By Ben Miller

Sixth Avenue has been a bustling business district in Tacoma for a long time, but starting this summer it will be a bustling business district with its very own farmers market. The market that was previously in the Dome District will be moving to a new location at Sixth Avenue and Pine Street starting July 15.

John Loesch, president of the Sixth Avenue Business District, said that when his group heard that the market near the Dome was planning on moving this summer, they made a pitch for Sixth Avenue.

“We convinced them that Sixth Avenue was now ready to handle it,” Loesch said. “They were willing to work with us to get it up here and it finally came to pass.”

The market will be open on Tuesdays from about 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. – the final times have not been set in stone yet – and will run until the farmers run out of produce, which Lynnette Claire, a member of the Sixth Avenue Business District and an assistant professor at the University of Puget Sound (UPS), estimated to be mid-September. The scheduled Tuesday appearances will not conflict with either of the two markets already in Tacoma – the Broadway Farmers Market on Thursdays or the Proctor Farmers Markets on Saturdays.

A big part of bringing the market to Sixth Avenue has been talking with the local restaurants to see if they would be interested in using produce at the market for dishes at their establishments.

“We are going to try to get as many farmers as we can because the restaurants here are committed to buying from the farmers,” Loesch said.

UPS will be taking a big role in getting the market off the ground as well. Claire has already put in her time to get things up and running, but she said she also hopes to see other faculty members and staff volunteering in the process.

“We would like to be involved not only to facilitate this but also to buy a lot of our produce locally,” Claire said. “A lot of our faculty and staff would be great people to go and be involved both as purchasers as well as people to help organize this.”

There will be a meeting for residents of the Sixth Avenue area to have their say and a chance to put in their time April 28 from 7-9 p.m. at Epworth LeSourd Methodist Church, located at 710 S. Anderson St.

“It’s going to be a Sixth Avenue neighborhood project,” Loesch said. “Any time you bring people into a neighborhood for one business or the other, it’s going to help the rest of them.”

While a lot of the details have not been figured out just yet, the Sixth Avenue Business District has raised $3,000 so far of a required total that will have to be around $20,000 to get things running. There is one thing that is known for sure at this point – it needs to have a Sixth Avenue feel to it.

“That’s something we’re conscious about, keeping that Sixth Avenue vibe. It’s fun, it’s artsy,” Claire said.

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