Columbia City Farmers Market Moving...

... in a couple of years, anyway.

"After two years, it's definitely moving," writes invaluable neighborhood blogger Captain Columbia City. He talked to the market's coordinator, Karen, on Wednesday, the last day the Columbia City Farmers Market will be open this year.

Of course, Columbia City Plaza was sold to a development firm on the east coast recently, and so when the Plaza owners lease expires early next year, they'll sign a new one with the new owners. The new owners are planning on putting in a mixed use retail & condo development, but they realize that the planning & permitting process will take years, so they've very kindly offered the current space rent free for the next two years while the permitting process takes place.

The market is already looking for alternate locations though. Their rough boundaries are east to Seward Park, north to the intersection of MLK & Rainier, south to Rainier Beach, and west to the eastern bottom of Beacon Hill.

Seattlest hereby nominates the parking lot of the former Rainier Beach Plaza, now a mysterious plywood-covered construction project, at the intersection of Seward Park and Rainier.

No, we're not the site's owners, but it's within walking distance from our house and we're selfish that way. As it is, since moving to Rainier Beach we haven't visited the CCFM as often as we have the Ballard and the U District markets, only because they're open on the weekends. (No, we don't take the bus all the way up there. Yes, we have a complicated love-hate relationship with the environment.)

Of course, our proposed location may have a fatal flaw: "One option was the parking lot of the grocery store at MLK and Rainier, but they're not a big fan of it since at that point it's not really the "Columbia City" Farmers Market anymore."

Photo by zeebleoop, from our Flickr pool. Thanks! And yes, it was actually taken at the Ballard Farmers Market.