The Salt Lake City Downtown Farmers Market has become one of the largest in the nation since it debuted in 1992.
More than 250,000 shoppers attended last year’s summer market, exploring produce and other items from over than 300 vendors who came from 16 Utah counties to sell their products at Pioneer Park, according to the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance, which oversees the weekly event.
The city now wants it to become more than just a seasonal event at the park.
Salt Lake City leaders unveiled plans for a new public market building to help the park become a “year-round home” for the market and other events. The city has also tentatively reached a memorandum of understanding with the Downtown Alliance to potentially create a new public-private partnership to manage future park operations, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall announced Thursday.
“A future where Pioneer Park is utilized to its full potential is a future where Salt Lakers feel more connected to each other, to the outdoors and to our community,” she said in a statement. “This partnership with the Downtown Alliance builds on decades of success with the Farmers Market and opens the door to that aspiration.”
The announcement comes as the downtown park is due for a major overhaul. Salt Lake City plans to break ground on its Pioneer Park Vision Plan this fall, an $18.4 million project that seeks to drastically overhaul the park, which draws large crowds when the market is open but is often empty at other times. On average, fewer than 170 people visited the park every day last year, per the city.
A new playground, plaza, pavilion and ranger station, new pickleball courts and a fenced off-leash dog area and natural habitat section are among planned features for the park through the separate project led by the city’s public lands division. The city also shared renderings of a new art piece to be installed next year earlier this month.
A year-round market could be another feature, but the building would also host a mix of public and private events when the market isn’t open, according to the Downtown Alliance. It would replace its current winter market location at the Gateway.
The downtown business nonprofit added that it would like to add elements like lawn games, cafe seating, a beverage bar and public bathrooms at the facility. The building’s design and other elements are still subject to Salt Lake City Council approval. Construction is tentatively expected to begin as early as 2026.
City officials say they will conduct feasibility assessments this year as the proposal goes through a public process.
The downtown market not only brings crowds to the park, but also it’s become a “phenomenal economic tool,” resulting in $11 million in annual direct-to-consumer sales, Dee Brewer, executive director of the Downtown Alliance, reported to the City Council earlier this year. It could also help turn one of the city’s lowest-rated parks around, he added on Thursday.
“Pioneer Park has endured a bad reputation for decades. We know we can change the chemistry of the park. We have done it every summer Saturday for 34 years with the Downtown Farmers Market,” he said.
This year’s market returns to the park on June 7. It will continue on most Saturdays through Oct. 25.