A local business owner is organizing a new community market that will start up next month in a parking lot north of Grocery Outlet along Fourth Plain Boulevard in Vancouver. Amanda Cowan/The Columbian Photo Gallery
Just in time for the longest and sunniest days of summer, the Fourth Plain corridor is going to begin hosting a seasonal street market next month.
The Fourth Plain Community Market will operate 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays in the gravel parking lot outside Grocery Outlet at 5800 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd. in Vancouver. The market’s first day will be June 4, continuing through the summer.
“We’re looking at June-July-August, so probably 12 market days total,” said Kelli Crocker, the market’s lead organizer.
A market in the Fourth Plain corridor has been a longtime goal of the city of Vancouver’s Fourth Plain Forward initiative. The state Legislature recently awarded Vancouver an $800,000 grant for a community commons space, which would be a multi-use development including an outdoor space that could potentially host a satellite of the Vancouver Farmers Market.
That project is still a long way from breaking ground — in fact, it doesn’t have a site selected. According to city associate economic development planner Andrea Pastor, plans for the Fourth Plain Community Market emerged separately, without the city’s direct involvement.
The market will be independently operated, Pastor said, but it has the city’s and Fourth Plain Forward’s support.
“We’re excited for it since it’s something we’ve always intended to have happen,” she said.
The effort has been spearheaded by Crocker, perhaps known locally as the operator of the Nutz-R-Us roasted nut stand at the Vancouver Farmers Market, as well as the owner of Flying Biscuit Baking Co. — both of which will be among the businesses at the Fourth Plain market.
Crocker has contacted vendors and coordinated permitting. But she says the Fourth Plain corridor community has provided the momentum to create the market.
“It came about very quickly,” she says. “Just kind of a conversation that snowballed.”
The idea for the market emerged in February, she said, during a discussion with a Grocery Outlet clerk. Crocker noticed barricades blocking an empty gravel section at the store’s north-end parking lot, so she asked the clerk if the space was blocked for an event.
It turned out the gravel lot wasn’t being used for anything, she said. She mentioned it looked like a good place for a community market, and the idea apparently caught on among Grocery Outlet staff.
“Before I was fully committed, everyone else was,” she said.
Within a few days, she received a call from the store’s co-owner, Carlos Rodriguez Vega, followed by the property owner, both asking if Crocker would be interested in coordinating a market on the site. Pastor also contacted her and offered to have Fourth Plain Forward help promote the market.
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Grocery Outlet is a member of Fourth Plain Forward, and Rodriguez Vega said he thought the market would be a great way to promote the community’s businesses, as well as a good use for the empty section of the parking lot. It will also benefit people who live in the Fourth Plain area but can’t make it to the Vancouver Farmers Market, he said.
“It’s not only going to benefit us — the people who live and work in the corridor — but it’ll also attract more people to the corridor,” he said.
Crocker has operated Nutz-R-Us at the Vancouver Farmers Market for 20 years, so she was familiar with what it would take to get a new market going. She began by reaching out to fellow vendors at the Vancouver market, as well as businesses along the Fourth Plain corridor.
She quickly found an enthusiastic lineup of participants. In addition to Crocker’s own two brands, other confirmed participants are Foody Blues, Cece on Mars, Kay’s Creations, Nature’s Authority, Chunney Pop, Marquam Hill Berries and Medjool Magic.
Additional vendors have reached out but not yet been confirmed, Crocker said, and she wants to encourage any other interested businesses to get in touch with her at FourthplainCM@gmail.com.
Crocker said she anticipates starting the market with about 25 to 30 vendors, though she estimates the parking lot has space to accommodate as many as 100. She said she’s also begun reaching out to food trucks and working to schedule music and other live entertainment. The market will not initially be set up to support EBT cards for food stamps, but Crocker said she hopes to be able to add that feature in the future.
The vendor lineup will overlap a bit with the Vancouver Farmers Market, but Crocker said she’s been trying to make sure the Fourth Plain market still has its own distinct vibe, and to give businesses along the corridor an opportunity to participate.
“I don’t want it to be a copy of the Vancouver Farmers Market,” she said.
That’s also why she chose Tuesday afternoons as the market day. That way the Fourth Plain market won’t directly compete with the Vancouver market. She also said Tuesday seemed like a slower business day at Grocery Outlet and nearby businesses, which may mean the community market will bring more people to the area.
Crocker said she’s been amazed by the strong local support for the concept, and the Fourth Plain community has pushed her to develop the concept as quickly as possible.
“(The level of demand) took me by surprise a little bit,” she said.
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