The Central New York Regional Market (CNY Regional Market), located on the north side of Syracuse, New York, is a State Authority (public), retail-wholesale, terminal food market complex. Although a State Authority, the Market has not received any public funding for over 20 years. In 2010, the market estimated that it had a hand in hosting sales of nearly $70 million per year in farm products.
Operated by the state-established Central New York Regional Market Authority, the market has stayed at its current location since first opening for business under the government's umbrella in 1938. Its main entrance is a roadway that is today designated Farmers' Market Place, located at 2100 Park Street, immediately opposite the mouth of the Exit 23 ramp from Interstate Route 81 northbound. The market area can also be accessed via other curb cuts along Park Street, as well as via roadways NBT Bank Parkway and Tex Simone Drive which have been set up in modern times to serve both the market and its neighbors, the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center, and NBT Bank Stadium.
Commercial Real Estate
The market authority's overall mandate includes acting as landlord to several full-time food- or service-related businesses fronting on (or generally situate close to) the Park Street side.
In 2005, around the corner at 301 Hiawatha Boulevard East, there is a warehouse parcel which the authority purchased out of the Peter's Groceries bankruptcy. In September 2020, further up the block, the authority took out a mortgage to buy the Fox Hollow Movers facility at 513 Hiawatha Blvd. East for $2.2 million; this is in connection with a proposal involving a centralized kitchen, storage, and processing facility for Syracuse City Schools. Lastly, the authority technically owns the Byrne Dairy-Syracuse Cold Storage "freezer plant" situated at 245 Tex Simone Drive, a construction dating from 1990 on the basis of a long-term lease inked in 1988 in a collaboration with state economic development officials. All of this land and all of the buildings situated thereon remain assessed to the public sector's Regional Market Authority, although some of the parcels have been developed in such a way that they do, in fact, pay local property taxes.
From the very beginning, another key part of the market's business meant acting as landlord to several full-time produce wholesalers who are set up on leases within the interior "commission houses," three of which run alongside Farmers' Market Place, and a fourth of newer construction situated behind. The market's website indicates it currently has three wholesaling tenants: G. & R. D'Agostino Quality Produce, Peter A. Guinta & Son Produce, and Russo Produce.
Retail Markets
Syracuse's Regional Market is best known to the public for the part-time retail markets it hosts within the heart of its campus, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., every Saturday and Sunday year-round, and Thursdays from May through to the Thursday before Thanksgiving. Thursday and Saturday are primarily about food buying for domestic consumption, plus nursery plants in season, but there may be some crafts, antiques, collectibles, and flea-market-type vendors on hand, along with sellers of prepared food. The Sunday market is primarily a crafts, antiques, collectibles, and flea market, but, again, there may be some produce, plants, and prepared food vendors here also. Over peak periods, and including all three retail markets, the Syracuse site was touted in 2010 as serving 40,000 individual shoppers per week.
Saturday Market
By far, the most storied and best attended market is the Saturday farmers' market, which cycles through shifting seasons which stall lease agreement drafters have broken down as the Growers' Season, May-Oct.; then the Holiday Season, Nov.-Dec.; and lastly the Winter Season, Jan.-Apr. Naturally, Saturday market attendance peaks over the May to October run, when attendance starts to pick up for early season crops (plus flower garden plants, and rooted vegetable "starts," both coming out of greenhouses), and then builds into harvest time for the widest range of fruits and vegetables that are actually field-grown in the immediate Central New York area.
In August 2008, the market's car count was reported to be 9,300 for a typical Saturday. In May 2013, Syracuse Dot Com food and drink maven Don Cazentre recorded the peak-season Saturday attendance to have then been about 26,000 shoppers.Cazentre, Don. (3 May 2013). "What's new: Expanding Central New York Regional Market opens for 2013 produce season," Syracuse.com. Accessed: December 9, 2013. At that more recent time—in answer to complaints that the Saturday market may have gotten over-congested—the market was reported to have 1,000 parking spaces clearly painted on pavement within walking distance to its Retail Market area. Added to this, there was room on gravel for another 400 vehicles, northeast across the roadway (NBT Bank Parkway) next to the Byrne Dairy-Syracuse Cold Storage facility. Furthermore, on market Saturdays, when wholesalers are not busy moving or unloading trucks, there are another 800 parking spaces available in that area of the overall campus—to the left of, to the right of, and beyond the trio of so-called "commission houses."
When the Saturday market is seasonally running at full bustle, nearly all of the 450 maximum-capacity stall spaces are occupied. That's not an accurate gauge of the maximum-capacity number of vendors, however, as some do enough business to lease more than one adjoining stall. The market's web site currently touts the Saturday market vendor population as more than 300. Another source, a Saturday vendor list printed to PDF in October 2019, shows 194 sellers from 19 Upstate New York counties, ranging from as far west as Monroe, Ontario, and Yates; as far south as Tioga, Cortland, and Chenango; and as far east as Montgomery and Otsego. At the coldest times of year, on the other hand, the entire Saturday market can nearly be squeezed into just the A Shed.
Thursday Market
Another answer to customer complaints that Saturday's market may have grown too difficult to navigate is to suggest that some shoppers could simply move their food-buying schedule to Thursdays. On that day, even in high season, the market consists of little more than a partially filled A Shed and adjoining open-air B Aisle. Naturally, not all of one's favorite vendors can be expected to be in attendance. Regardless, board meeting minutes from March 2019 noted then-Executive Director Ben Vitale's concern that Thursday's market remained in decline, and was without a turn-around plan on the horizon.
Historically, the Thursday market actually ran into the evening hours. One old-timer on the Facebook Group Nostalgic Syracuse recalled Summer Thursday nights in which her family brought home bushels of produce—so that they were ready to process it all for freezing or canning over the weekend. In 2010, Don Cazentre from the Syracuse newspaper reported Thursday market hours were 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and, in 2011, that was trimmed to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. By 2013 (and perhaps a year earlier), the Thursday market hours were shifted to match the same as what people were able to commit to memory for the weekends, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sunday Market
A Sunday vendor list printed to PDF in October 2019 shows 59 flea marketeers from 10 Upstate New York counties.
Market Tokens The Welcome Center serves as the main office during retail market hours (the real, full-time main office is actually inside the Market Commons building). It is the small brick building located between A Shed and the Market Commons building. Among other pieces of business, the Welcome Center is where EBT and Debit/Credit tokens are dispensed. Here is how these tokens work:
EBT Silver Tokens are $1 each, and are intended to cut down on the red tape burdening transactions in which, typically, food stamp recipients wish to spend their "electronic benefit transfer" resources at the market among multiple vendors, many of whom are operating without swipe or scan technology. Instead, EBT cards from any state can be swiped beforehand at the Welcome Center, converting a specified amount into EBT Silver Tokens at $1 per. These tokens never expire, but, if desired, unspent tokens can be returned with the receipt, and the card re-loaded. Produce vendors aren’t giving any cash change, since the silver tokens are in one dollar increments, and pretty much everything can be purchased in whole dollar amounts.
Gold Tokens are $5 each, and they work similarly, but they are intended for use by shoppers who—for reasons of habit, or personal safety, or points-building—typically go around town without carrying significant cash, instead relying on credit or debit cards. Again, any Visa, MasterCard, or Discover card can be swiped beforehand at the Welcome Center, converting a specified amount into Gold Tokens at $5 per. No additional or ATM fee is charged. Again, these tokens never expire, and unspent ones can be returned with a receipt. In the case of the gold tokens, vendors will give change in cash.
Retail Market Layout
Physically, the official Retail Market is that fenced-in sequence of aligned, parallel structures or spaces commonly referenced as A Shed, B Aisle, C Shed, D Shed, E Shed, and F Shed, running southwest to northeast. B Aisle is simply an open-air area between two of the structures, with vendor stall boundaries painted on the pavement.
The layout from the frontmost Market Commons building, to the Welcome Center behind, and then further to the retail area's row of sheds running A to E is all of vintage design and footprint, appearing virtually unchanged on aerial and landscape photos going all the way back to the market's first year. A and C sheds hint at art deco styling in brick, featuring warehouse end wall parapets that mirror similar construction in the nearby wholesale-only commission houses. In A Shed, which is a wider structure, the parapets frame a raised embankment of windows running along the central spine, designed for cost-effective natural lighting within. D and E sheds, on the other hand, started out as little more than roofs over steel-framed barns, open at all four walls; in fact, these last two sheds were reportedly moved from the ancestral city market's location near the intersection of Pearl Street with North Salina.
These oldest sheds remain true to their spartan conception, in which low operating costs, quick business, traffic flow, and ventilation are viewed as paramount. They are also set up in strict deference to maximizing operating efficiency, wherein most vendors are able to unload early in the morning, and reload early in the afternoon, by simply backing a vehicle up to or through each stall's exterior entrance. Vendors turn to set up tables inside so as to face potential buyers milling about along the central axis of each building. Today, during the heating season, in A, E, and F sheds, overhead rolling doors are mandated for closure from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., helping keep in some heat. For much of the year, however, most of the market is effectively an open air operation, with only roofs protecting against precipitation. Public restrooms are few, having been recently installed down on the end, in the newest F Shed and in the upgraded E Shed; at the other end, needy market attendees have customarily traversed to the Market Commons building, just southwest of the Welcome Center and A Shed.