Evolution on Main Street: office supplies to museum to farmers’ market

The Riverhead Farmers’ Market has found a new indoor home for the winter season: the currently vacant East Main Street storefront that once housed the Dinosaur Walk Museum and before that was the longtime home of McCabe’s Office Products store.

“We’re all set,” Riverhead BID Management Association president Raymond Pickersgill said.

The approximately 20,000-square-foot space is in move-in condition, Pickersgill said. It has operational heating and fire suppression systems, unlike other spaces being considered by the BID, he said.

Pickersgill said the town building inspector and fire marshal have already looked at the space and “signed off on it.”

“We’re planning to be open there next weekend,” Pickersgill said.  “We’re going to work like crazy to get it cleaned up and ready to go.”  The space will also be used for children’s games during the Edgar Allen Poe Festival, he said.

Pickersgill showed the space to farmers’ market organizer Holly Browder  this morning. Building owner Bob Knotoff and Riverhead Community Development Agency director Chris Kempner were also on hand.

The BID will sign a $3,000-per-month lease on the space, located at the corner of East Main Street and McDermott Avenue, until at least next May, Pickersgill said.

The indoor farmers’ market, which opened in February at 117 East Main Street, drew good crowds each weekend and was considered a success by the farmers who participated in it. The new location is more than twice the size.

Pickersgill said he’d like to see the the farmers’ market expand to a two-day event on weekends. “There’s demand for it,” he said.

He also thinks the space could house “pop-up stores” in addition to the farmers market vendors.

“There are a lot of exciting possibilities,” Pickersgill said.