This renderng shows the prototype of the kiosks for the future Common Market at Greyline Station, slated to open on the corner of North Limestone Street and Loudon Avenue in summer 2020. The Winter Market event on Dec. 7 will provide the public with an opportunity to see the home of the future market. Rendering furnished
After six years of presenting popular outdoor pop-up markets at the intersection of North Limestone Street and Bryan and Loudon avenues, the community organization NoLi CDC will host its largest event to date on Saturday, Dec. 7.
Dubbed the Winter Market, the event will be the first opportunity for NoLi CDC to introduce the public to the 23,000-square-foot space where it is slated to open Common Market, a year-round indoor public market and “social and cultural hub,” in the summer of 2020. The Winter Market event and forthcoming Common Market will both be located inside the Greyline Station building, across the street from the parking lot and alley where the Night Markets have historically taken place.
The Common Market will be the culmination of a massive grant-funded project that NoLi CDC has been working toward since 2015, when it received a $550,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to help bring to life its vision of a permanent, public market largely designed to serve small business owners in the North Limestone (NoLi) neighborhood. With additional components to include an indoor playground and indoor event space, the project will give new life to the historic Southeast Greyhound Building, which was built in 1928 and operated as a Southeast Greyhound Line bus station and headquarters from 1936-1960 and the headquarters and maintenance repair facility for LexTran from 1972-2015. LexTran sold the building in 2018 to Needham Properties, which is renovating it as an industrial multi-use project called Greyline Station. According to property manager Chad Needham, other slated future tenants for the building include Lexington Community Radio (recently rebranded as RadioLex), North Lime Coffee & Donuts, Forage Plants & Home Goods and a soup-and-sandwich shop called Nourished.
NoLi CDC will begin accepting vendor applications for the Common Market in January 2020, utilizing a vendor selection criteria specifically designed to serve entrepreneurs from the NoLi neighborhood. The vendor selection criteria is set up to ensure that at least half of the vendors are female business owners, half are people of color, half are NoLi neighborhood residents and and half are from low-income households.
Taking place from 1-6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7, the Winter Market is designed to create a fully immersive community and holiday shopping experience, with more than 100 food and retail vendors and a full day of music and community performances. A prototype of the Common Market kiosks, designed and fabricated by local design firm Nomi Design, will also be on display, and NoLi CDC will announce the official name of the forthcoming public market – to be named after a late Lexington civil rights activist – at 2 p.m. that day.