The Farmers Market Moved to City Hall, and Old Town's Saturday Moved With It
"I've lived in the area for 20 years and never not been able to find parking." Bailey Kurth, a server at Karsen's, told the Scottsdale Progress this as she set up outdoor tables across First Street from a lot that had just closed for construction. That lot was the two-story "Parking Corral" at First Street and Brown Avenue. It had stood for about 23 years, and during the season it held the Old Town Scottsdale Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings.
The market opened its season on October 3 with a new home in the City Hall parking lot at 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd. The new site is only about a quarter mile from the old one. Even so, the move changes how a Saturday in Old Town fits together. The market now shares its Civic Center address with the Día de los Muertos Fiestas. Meanwhile, the restaurants around Brown Avenue no longer have a market on their doorstep.
The city cleared the Brown Avenue site for the Brown Avenue Parking Expansion, a garage project with a long history in Old Town. The Scottsdale Independent reported that the city and market management worked together on the relocation. The paper also described the City Hall lot as a new, larger location that gives the market room to grow while keeping it close to Old Town shops, restaurants and the Civic Center. Market producer Dee Logan said the team was excited to welcome vendors and visitors to the improved lot.
Construction began at the end of June, and the Corral closed on June 29. The project adds two levels and 185 parking stalls. The new spaces are expected in spring 2027, with finishing work running through summer 2027. In practice, the entire 2026–27 market season, which ends in June, will run while the garage is still being built.
The market dates to October 2008 and is in its 18th year. The organizer says it brings together more than 100 local growers and specialty food producers. Arizona Community Farmers Markets lists the vendors by category, including:
The organizer warns that vendor attendance varies from week to week. The market sells only food and farm products. Well-mannered pets are welcome, and DUFB/SNAP benefits are accepted.
Hours change three times between now and summer. A routine built for October will be off by June.
| Months | Saturday hours |
|---|---|
| October through April | 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| May | 8 a.m. to noon |
| June | 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. |
| July through September | Closed |
The June schedule is the one that catches people out. It opens an hour earlier and ends three hours earlier than the fall hours. It also falls at a time when the new garage stalls should be open or nearly open.
The market's page gives the new address and a map link but no parking instructions for visitors. Arriving by car takes some planning, because the market's former home is now the construction site itself. During construction the streets stay open to traffic. The sidewalks on Brown Avenue and on First and Second streets next to the garage are closed, which the Progress called "sidewalk surfing."
The Mission faces the construction directly. Its website points guests to the Center for the Arts Parking Garage at 3888 N. Wells Fargo Ave. or to street parking. That advice is meant for the restaurant's diners, and the market hasn't named an official lot. Still, it is the clearest guidance any business on the old block has published. Gallery owner Bob Pejman also told the Progress that the 100-space HonorHealth lot is no longer available. So Old Town has lost two parking options at once, and the old habit of pulling into the nearest lot won't work this season.
Three restaurants surround the old market site. Karsen's sits across First Street from the Corral, Rehab Burger Therapy is a block away, and The Mission is a historic restaurant directly in front of the garage site. In July, Karsen's owner Jacob Finley told the Progress that sales had risen every year for five years until the lot closed. He said sales fell 22% in the first two weeks of July compared with the same weeks a year earlier. Rehab co-owner Denise Nelson described a similar drop over the same period.
Those numbers come from midsummer, before the market season started, and no later report has updated them. What changes this fall is that the market sits about a quarter mile away. A visit to the old block now takes a deliberate walk from City Hall.
No closure has been reported for any of the three. The Mission's website shows open reservations, lunch and dinner daily, and weekend brunch. Rehab Burger Therapy's site links to direct online ordering and delivery. Brunch at The Mission or a burger at Rehab after the market gives you a natural reason to walk back toward Brown Avenue.
When the garage is finished, the city's plans call for the top level to be set back from Brown Avenue, with shaded sidewalks below. The public art now on the site will be preserved, and a new installation will face Second Street.
The market's new home matters most when you look at what else happens near it. The 10th annual Scottsdale Día de los Muertos Fiestas uses the same address, 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd. at Scottsdale Civic Center. The Civic Center is now Old Town's main gathering point for the next six weeks:
The Arizona Fall League also plays through November 14 this year, with Scottsdale Stadium at 7408 E. Osborn Road among its venues.
Two openings this fall make the hours after the market easy to fill.
Holla Brunch Girl is a 21-and-over rooftop brunch with group singing, at 7320 E. Indian Plaza. It opened September 26 and runs Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., so it overlaps the market's last three hours.
Los Milics Vineyards has moved across the street from its former Old Town tasting room. Its new Scottsdale Tasting Room & Mozzarella Bar sits at the corner of Marshall Way and Third Avenue, according to an October 1 report in Mouth by Southwest. For anyone carrying home a bag of AZ Farms Cheese and a Noble Bread loaf, a mozzarella bar in Old Town makes an easy stop.
Not everything carried over from last fall. Old Town Tortilla Factory on East Main Street, just west of Goldwater Boulevard, has closed permanently instead of reopening after its summer break, Mouth by Southwest reported on August 1. PHOENIX magazine reported in September that Sel Bistro has closed after 10 years in Old Town. The Saturday route through Old Town is changing in several places at once, and the move to City Hall is the biggest of those changes.
At Bob Martz, we follow changes like this one closely: a market moving a quarter mile, a garage opening in phases, a festival starting the hour a market ends. These details shape daily life in Old Town. If you're considering a move within Scottsdale and want to know how the Civic Center blocks will feel once the Brown Avenue garage opens in 2027, we'd welcome the conversation. Request a Private Market Consultation.
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