An icon of the Mount Clemens Farmers Market since the 1990s, the red barn along North River Road will remain where it is when the market moves to downtown Mount Clemens this May.
By: Dean Vaglia | Mount Clemens-Clinton-Harrison Journal | Published March 20, 2026
MOUNT CLEMENS — The Mount Clemens Farmer’s Market is leaving its long-time home on North River Road this year, but the market is not happy about it.
“We were completely blindsided by it,” said JoEllen Clark, secretary for the Mount Clemens Farmers Market nonprofit.
While not the first time a move away from the North River Road parking lot has been floated, the Mount Clemens Farmers Market was first approached by the city about moving after a City Commission meeting on Dec. 1, 2025. Commissioners gave their approval to the city to negotiate lease terms with Consumers Energy, which wanted to use the North River Road lot as a laydown yard for work nearby. The contract is for 12 months at $8,000 a month with monthly extensions available for $8,000.
The city and the market had previously discussed moving downtown. City Manager Gregg Shipman said the Great Lakes Water Authority had approached the city around two years ago about leasing the lot as a laydown yard, but the GLWA found a different site. Clark said prior discussions to move the market downtown included possibly building a shed for the market to move.
“(The city was) talking about building a shed for us to move into if we moved back downtown,” Clark said. “That was kind of the thing back then, like, ‘What would it take to get you back downtown,’ and the conversations that we had were, ‘Build us someplace to move into and we’ll move back downtown.’ There were meetings for probably three or four years going back and forth trying to make that happen, and that never happened, so we stayed where we were. We were perfectly happy to stay where we were.”
City officials made it no secret that they wanted the market downtown with Mayor Laura Kropp, who is also on the board of the Mount Clemens Downtown Development Authority, believing its move downtown would be mutually beneficial.
“This puts the market in the DDA footprint, and the DDA is very excited about having them there,” Kropp said. “We believe that the events that we have already programmed in the DDA district will benefit the farmers as well, which they currently don’t see the benefits of being out on North River Road. We’re anticipating being able to significantly increase their attendance. We also believe that their attendees that were going to the North River Road lot will also enjoy being in the downtown and enjoy being able to stop for brunch or shop in a lot of our retail locations … Our business community is very, very supportive of this move. They can’t wait for the farmers and are willing to offer programs and discounts to the farmers and to the people who are coming to utilize the farmers market. They are very excited to see this move. We just look at it as a very positive thing for the downtown and for the farmers as well.”
The market’s new location will be in the Roskopp parking lot, south of the Anton Art Center and north of the recently redeveloped Macomb Place, just a turn off of Southbound Gratiot Avenue. Some changes will be brought to the lot to accommodate the market.
“Their biggest concern was open parking space,” Shipman said. “We have parking meters in the lots and those are accompanied by curbs. We are in the process of eliminating the meters and going to kiosk pay stations, so we’re going to take two curbs out at the request of the market, and it will be flat parking, so that eliminates those barriers.”
Other amenities like bathrooms, sinks and storage space will be provided by the DDA to the market. Electricity for the market is available on-site. Clark believes the market will be a “tight fit” once the medians and meters have been cleared out and still holds concerns about parking accessibility.
“There’s not going to be a whole lot of customer parking around the market,” Clark said. “Most of the parking is going to have to be across the street on Pine Street or in other city municipal lots.”
Both the city and the market have received positive feedback about the move, with Clark referring to positive comments in response to the market’s Facebook announcement about the change. But while Clark has received word from all of 2025’s vendors stating they will follow the market downtown, she made it clear that moving was not a choice at all.
“None of us are happy about it, but we also realize we don’t have a choice,” Clark said. “If we’re going to have a market this year we have to go. Mount Clemens is unique from the standpoint of we’re truly a ‘farmers market.’ Most of the people on our market are farmers. That’s what they do for a living. They can’t not go to the market on a Saturday because they don’t like where it is. They have to suck it up and they’re going to move and make the best of it.”
The move is a return downtown for the Mount Clemens Farmers Market. Formed in 1979 and taking lineage from the “Mount Clemens Farm City Week” of the 1950s, the market was first located in a parking lot on Cass Avenue and Southbound Gratiot — a walk away from the Roskopp lot. The market moved several times over the years before settling into the North River Road lot in 1999. Around 1995 the market was able to build its iconic red barn thanks to donations and grants from Michigan State University Extension, with the barn following the market to North River Road.
The farmers will be without the barn when they move back downtown, with the City Commission having not approved any funds to move the aging structure from the lot (the item had not come before the commission as of March 16). While no official plans have been announced on the future of the North River Road lot, Clark described the market’s relocation as “permanent” while Shipman says Consumers’ lease of the lot may be a preview of its future.
“We’re going to see how this goes,” Shipman said. “If this goes well, I think there will be a lot of opportunities to utilize this lot for the same purpose. Consumers needs space like this. DTE needs space. Cable companies (need space).”
Kropp said the city previously turned down offers before realizing the demand from utility companies for laydown space.
“We anticipate that it will be something that there will be future opportunities (for),” Kropp said.
The Mount Clemens Farmers Market will begin its 2026 season on Saturday, May 2 and will be open on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. until November. Parking in city-owned lots is free on weekends.