Troy Waterfront Farmers Market signs lease, plans improvements (Albany Business Review)
This story by Mike DeMasi was published in the Albany Business Review on September 21, 2025.
Above: Albany Business Review, October 3–9, 2025 print edition, page 15. Click to enlarge.
The Albany Business Review reported that the market signed a three-year lease, with two three-year renewal options, for nearly 15,000 square feet at the Troy Atrium. The deal gives the market a year-round home: the winter market indoors, plus space for indoor festivals while the Saturday market stays outdoors in Monument Square and on River Street from May to October. Market manager Steve Ridler said the winter market still draws 2,500 to 3,500 people a week.
The story notes the winter market has been held for more than 20 years inside the Atrium, which it calls “a run-down former shopping center,” on a recurring six-month lease. Next up is $1.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds the city set aside for the market, for new lighting and floors and repairs to the Atrium’s Third and Fourth Street entrances, which the story says are in rough shape from years of neglect and damage. During BLC Cos.’ first winter as the Atrium’s owner, the company and the market split the cost of repairs such as leaky roofs and an unreliable HVAC system.
The Albany Business Review also reported, for the first time, that Mayor Carmella Mantello had the engineering firm CHA draw up a conceptual plan for a two-story, 25,000-square-foot market building at One Monument Square, the vacant riverfront site of the demolished former City Hall. Ridler, who was shown the drawing earlier this year, said it showed a market could fit on the site but “obviously needed a bit more work.” Mantello said she didn’t pursue the idea further because she understood the market was pleased with the Atrium improvements made by the new owner.
“We were always just leasing it for the season that was ahead of us and never looking at it long term.”
— Steve Ridler, market manager, in the Albany Business Review
Read the full story at the Albany Business Review.