Just as the South End Open Market season was coming to a close, New England Open Markets announced that they would be moving to the Ink Block in 2016; I wrote about it in my blog post: South End Open Market moves to Ink Block in 2016 but Food Trucks and Farmers Market stay put.
After writing the post I was contacted by New England Open Market and was told that the entire Farmer’s Market would be moving in 2016. This conflicted with what I had been told by vendors. They were unhappy that the Farmer’s Market would be relocated under the I-93 expressway. Last week two longtime Farmer’s Market vendors confirmed they would not follow New England Open Market and would be joined by other vendors who would prefer to remain on GTI’s property, forming a second market for the neighborhood. How the market will be rebranded or which vendors will remain is unclear but it appears that differences between Chris Masci (owner of New England Open Markets) and Mario Nicosia (GTI Properties) are irreconcilable.
Mario and GTI Properties would seemingly have the upper hand in this feud with the public already familiar with the 450 Harrison Avenue location, ample parking and space for the market sandwiched between GTI’s recently renovated 460 Harrison Ave which now includes 40 new boutiques and Vintage Market. However, my question is can our neighborhood sustain two Farmer’s Markets?
Future Home of the South End Open Market® in 2017
Source: http://newenglandopenmarkets.com
For more background on their feud which led to this split I’d refer you to The Boston Globe’s story from early October, Bitter split muddles future of South End markets.
BosGuy 