A new home for Flourtown Farmers Market

After a three-month scramble of scouting, negotiating, zoning, designing, and funding, the Flourtown Farmers Market is getting ready to move to shiny new digs in August.

Neighbors, shoppers, and local officials rallied around the 14 independent vendors in February, when their landlord said they had to vacate by July.

For Brian Halligan, the timing could not have been better. Halligan's real estate firm was in the process of renovating an 87-year-old property - the former Springfield Hotel and Sorella Rose Restaurant - into a mixed-use development. The 13 high-end apartments were under construction, but he was looking for new tenants after a deal to place medical offices on the first floor fell through.

"It's a win-win for everybody, the vendors, for me, and for the community," Halligan said Thursday. It has required more investment on his part - extra land for parking, rezoning, and outfitting the building for refrigerators, stoves, and display cases instead of offices. In return, he gets retail tenants with a 30-year track record of being integral to the Flourtown community.

The last piece of the puzzle fell into place Thursday, with the approval of a $250,000 low-interest loan from the Montgomery County Development Corporation.

County Commissioner Valerie A. Arkoosh said the project was close to her heart.

"As a resident of Springfield Township, I have shopped at the Flourtown Farmers Market for many, many years," she said, noting that the market employs 50 to 60 people. Many of those are second- or third-generation employees and small-business owners.