[Photo courtesy of the Food of the Future]

The Moore Street Retail Market, popularly known as La Marqueta de Williamsburg, has been saved! It has long been threatened with closure and the mom-and-pop merchants there have charged the city didn’t care about them or their future. About two years ago, the city tried to shut the East Williamsburg market and move its vendors to a new location they rejected. The vendors came up with 25,000 petition signatures and also recruited a bunch of heavyweight Brooklyn politicians to protect them. The market is one of four built during the Great Depression that survive, but the city said that it had to go because it had lost $1 million over four years. A pending deal was noted in August.

Well, today the NYC Economic Development Corp. announeded an agreement with the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) to take over the operations of the market. There will be a five-year lease and NYCEDC is throwing in $180K to help with management transition. Per a press release from the NYCEDC: “The Moore Street Market has long been a center of the East Williamsburg community, bringing not only fresh foods and goods to the area, but also providing a meeting place for neighborhood residents,” said NYCEDC President Seth W. Pinsky. “Under the management of BEDC, I am confident that the market will not only continue to fulfill this role, but will do so even more effectively and on a greater scale. I thank Representative Velazquez, Assembly Member Lopez and Council Member Reyna for their enthusiastic support of this important project.”

Congresswoman Nydia M. Velazquez called the market “a local treasure where small business owners have thrived for more than 65 years.” The 15,000 square foot Moore Street Market is one of a number of public markets built by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in the 1940s to get street cart vendors off New York City’s congested streets. It currently has 11 vendors and about 40 employees (and some darned good produce at reasonable prices).