THEY SAY EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN — AND THAT ’ S CERTAINLY TRUE FOR LEXINGTON MARKET . AFTER OPERATING FOR NEARLY 240 YEARS , THE HISTORIC PUBLIC MARKET — THE LARGEST IN BALTIMORE ’ S SIX-MARKET SYSTEM — WAS IN SERIOUS NEED OF A REFRESH . THE CITY TAPPED BALTIMORE- BASED SEAWALL DEVELOPMENT TO LEAD THE PROJECT . A FEW YEARS AND $ 40 MILLION LATER , THE OVERHAULED LEXINGTON MARKET IS FINALLY HERE . SO HOW ’ D IT ALL COME TO BE ? WELL , IT STARTED WITH A LOT OF TALKING ( AND LISTENING ).
Clockwise below from top left : Kokee Tea , Connie ' s Chicken and Waffles , Super Fried Chicken , Sausage Master and JBees Jamaican Me Crazy .
“ We knew if the Market was to succeed , it needed to be created by the collective conscience of Baltimore City ,” says Jon Constable , development manager at Seawall .
The project began by engaging with the community at town halls , through surveys and during meetings with neighborhood associations . Then , Seawall worked on incorporating that feedback into the development plans , from finding new homes for beloved neon signs to retaining affordability .
“ It was important to the Market ’ s mission and its customers to preserve accessibility and affordability of fresh food — and keep these products available via SNAP ,” says Seawall ’ s Director of Food and Beverage Development , Peter DiPrinzio . “ The Market has always been a home of small businesses , and we ’ ve kept and added to the low-cost kiosk spaces available to makers and vendors selling handmade items .”
Focus groups were implemented to develop a recruitment and selection process for choosing the vendors . Three priorities emerged : increased food variety , better diversity and retention of popular legacy vendors like Faidley ’ s Seafood and Market Bakery , which produces Baltimore ’ s famous Berger cookies . More than 400 vendors applied .
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