Possible reprieve for Domes market

A plan to keep a farmers market at the Domes this winter is in the works.

The Milwaukee Winter Farmers Market would operate on Saturday mornings this winter inside the greenhouse annex at the Mitchell Park Domes, under an agreement negotiated between the Milwaukee County Parks Department and Fondy Food Center, officials said.

Under the deal, the county would lease the annex to the Fondy Food Center on 20 Saturday mornings from Nov. 3 through March 30 this winter at a cost of $800 for each market day, County Parks Director Guy Smith says in a report to the County Board.

A home for the market this winter had been uncertain until the board intervened in May and urged the Parks Department to negotiate a new lease with the Fondy Food Center that would keep the market at the annex.

In March, Parks Department officials had notified the Fondy Food Center that the annex space would no longer be available on Saturdays for the market that draws more than 50 farmers and food vendors and nearly 1,800 shoppers each week.

The department said it was making the space available for other private and public events under a catering partnership with Zilli Hospitality Group.

Parks officials will discuss the new one-year lease agreement with the Fondy Food Center, manager of the winter market, at a Tuesday meeting of the County Board’s parks committee.

The Fondy Food Center’s board of directors had not met to approve the agreement as of Monday, Executive Director Jennifer Casey said.

“I’m pleased that the Parks Department responded to our request to negotiate a workable agreement that keeps the Winters Farmers Market at the Domes,” County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb Sr. said.

The market has operated inside the annex since the winter of 2015-16 and generates more than $1 million in sales each season, according to Casey. It was held inside the Show Dome and in the Domes lobby during the winters of 2013-14 and 2014-15.

On Saturdays this winter, the market would be from 8 a.m. to noon, instead of its previous schedule of 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., to ensure that all tables, goods and equipment are removed by 1 p.m., Smith said.

Vendors will be allowed to enter the annex beginning at 6 a.m. on market days to set up their stalls and merchandise.

When Saturday evening events are scheduled inside the annex, Fondy Food Center would pay up to $200 for a commercial service to clean the space by 3 p.m.

The winter market will not be held the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, or the Saturday of New Year’s weekend, Dec. 29, under the agreement. Those dates “are typically very busy” at the Domes, Smith said in his report to the board.

Declining attendance at the Domes on market Saturdays was one reason for the Parks Department’s earlier decision to halt the market’s use of the annex, according to Smith.

The daily lease fee would increase this winter to $800, up from $600.