Omnivore - Your DeKalb Farmer’s Market dreams big, proposes quadrupling footprint
Owners want to create a new 718,367-square-foot warehouse, new 518,000-square-foot store
- Joeff Davis/CL File
- Your DeKalb Farmer’s Market
Tony Wilbert at Skyline Views points out that the owners of Your DeKalb Farmer’s Market Market, the 140,000-square-foot foodies’ paradise in DeKalb County, has proposed quadrupling the massive market’s footprint.
According to the filing with the state, the market’s owners want to create a new 718,367-square-foot warehouse and a new 518,000 square-foot retail area. The new store and warehouse would require two new driveways, one of which would be signalized.
In addition, the market would add 2,637 new parking spaces, bringing the grand total to 3,400. The first phase would open next October, but the entire proposal could take as many as 10 years to complete. (Keep in mind that some of the new construction could be located on adjacent parcels the market’s purchased over the years.)
Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Robert Blazer, the New England native who founded YDFM in the late 1970s, and his wife Barbara, who also co-owns the market, in their offices overlooking the store. Among a wide variety of issues, our conversation covered the market’s future. Robert, an engineer by training, hoped to one day expand the store to give customers more room and accommodate the various activities - baking, cooking, fruit ripening, warehousing, and much more - that go on behind the scenes. (“Customers only see half the place,” he told me.)