The Greenmarket is a program run by the Delray Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and, more specifically, for the past 14 years by Lori Nolan.
"It's been a lot of different places," says Nolan. "When I first started to manage the market, it was on First Street behind Dunkin' Donuts. Then it was in the tennis center; then we moved back to First. Then one month, nothing was available and we went to Worthing Park. The vendors said, 'Please don't ever make us leave this park.'"
The market has moved seven times over the years, eventually getting booted from Worthing Park when it became Worthing Place, luxury apartment homes. That's the thing about working to make downtown a thriving, wonderful place to be -- soon as as a place becomes cool, people want to live there, and space becomes a premium. So the beloved Greenmarket was banished to Fourth Street.
"As convenient as it has been, there is nothing charming about Fourth," says Nolan. "It's all pavement. I just really want to make the market bigger and expand it, and we weren't able to do that on Fourth. The only way to grow it was to move."
Luckily, the redevelopment of downtown Delray Beach also preserved some green space. Old School Square Park is a large swath of open lawn that runs right through the heart of downtown. It conveniently adjoins the parking garage -- which is free during the day on Saturdays unless there is a special event going on.
And most important, the Greenmarket will gets its green charm back.
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