Quick Take
On Wednesday, the Live Oak farmers market signed a new lease agreement with Swenson that will allow it to stay at the East Cliff Village Shopping Center, its current home of 22 years, through May 2025. In March, its long-term agreement with property owner Swenson Builders dissolved, forcing the market to spend the past two months searching for a new home.
After searching for a new home over the past two months following the sudden dissolution of its agreement with its longtime property owner, the Live Oak farmers market will be able to stay at the East Cliff Village Shopping Center, its home of 22 years, after all – at least for the next year.
On Wednesday, Santa Cruz Community Farmers’ Markets signed a one-year lease agreement with Swenson Builders that will allow the Live Oak farmers market to remain in the parking lot at the East Cliff Village Shopping Center through May 2025. The market has been held at that location on Sundays since 2002.
Under the new lease, the market will pay $1,500 a month to rent the lot for one day a week, and is guaranteed to stay in the front parking lot area, where it is currently held, through October. After that, the market might have to move to the rear lot behind Balefire Brewing Co. to accommodate updates that Swenson Builders plans to make to the shopping center.
Farmers market board president and farmer Sandra Ward has been working on the negotiations more than eight weeks and is overjoyed at the results. “I’m very happy with it. It took a lot of work to distill it to that place,” Ward said. “I feel like it’s my birthday.”
Ward signed the market’s original lease with Swenson Builders in 2002, but the market has operated informally without a lease agreement for many years. The new lease marks a return to a legally binding contract between Swenson and the market, and a temporary end to a saga that began in March, when Swenson Builders presented the farmers market with new terms to rent the lot. The terms included a rent increase from $600 to $3,000 a month and proposed moving the market from the front parking lot along East Cliff Drive to a rear parking lot behind the shopping center.
The market “could not function” under those conditions, Ward told Lookout at the time, and wasn’t able to negotiate new terms. Because the market didn’t have an active contract, it was faced with the daunting task of finding a new home by the end of March, when its month-to-month agreement expired.
It’s unclear what motivated Swenson Builders to offer such dramatic new terms to the market. In March, Swenson representative Natalia Dykowska told Lookout that it valued its relationship with the market and appreciated “the role the market has played in enriching the local culture and economy,” and was disappointed when market organizers declined its proposal.
“Our proposal was constructed with careful consideration of market standards, the specific needs of the community and in full respect of the long-standing relationship between Swenson and the market,” said Dykowska in March. “Our goal was to continue supporting the market’s operations with a structure that also aligns with our responsibilities and vision for the property.”
Market organizers say they believe public outcry following the news of the market’s expulsion pressured Swenson Builders to offer the farmers market a 30-day extension. That extension expired this past Sunday, April 28, leaving market organizers to race against the clock to secure a new site in an effort to prevent any disruptions during its busy late-spring and summer season.
In April, market organizers presented the idea to collaborate with the nearby Live Oak School District and hold the market at one of its six schools. While district board members agreed to investigate the possibility, they said that the soonest a school could be selected would be the end of the year.
Ward says that despite the agreement with Swenson, the market plans to continue to search for a new permanent home, including any suitable school sites within the Live Oak district. “We really need to because nobody can predict the future. We initiated that and we have to follow through on that, because you never know what’s going to happen,” said Ward.
She says she’s amazed at how market supporters came together to voice their displeasure to Swenson, and believes it was a major influence in the market’s ability to secure a new lease. Said Ward: “It was totally a joint effort with the community.”
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