Empty storefronts have become a sign of the times lately. As the economy continues to falter, however, the vacant Winn-Dixie in the Homewood Village shopping center on Jefferson Road is about to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Epting Events, a catering company, is planning to turn the former grocery store into a year-round farmers’ market. The owner of Homewood Village is “on board to fill the space,” said Epting Events CEO Rick Selleck in an interview Monday.

Selleck’s “100-Mile Wedding” was a catalyst for the farmers’ market project. His wedding feast was mostly Georgia-grown food, including grass-fed beef, shrimp and grits. In the past few weeks, Epting Events executive assistant Lauren Mackay and intern Katie Brogdon, a University student, have researched other farmers’ markets around the country. Mackay said Monday that Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the country’s oldest farmers’ market, “is something we’d like to shoot for” when planning the Athens market.

The market “wouldn’t be a taxpayer thing at all,” Mackay said. While funding is still being researched, Mackay and Brogdon have found that selling vendor booths would be a possible way to pay for the space.

The new, year-round farmers’ market will give local farmers another outlet to sell excess goods that are not sold via the Athens Community Supported Agriculture or other farmers’ markets. “Through CSAs they can only dole out so much food each week,” said Emmanuel Stone, business developer for Epting Events, in an interview Monday. “With this local space, it will make their viability stronger.”

Stone also said with once-a-week farmers’ markets “you get people who are really looking for [local food], but not the casual shopper.”

Mackay said Epting Events hopes to partner with University organizations in the farmers’ market project. Brogdon sent out e-mails to clubs it wanted to get in contact with, and the Agricultural and Environmental Economics Club was the first to jump at the chance.

“We all felt that this is a great way to promote local agriculture, CAES and our club. With most of us being agribusiness, AgEcon, or enviromental economics and management [majors], we will hopefully be able to assist Epting Events with agricultural knowledge as well as with the business aspect,” said Gena Perry, AgEcon treasurer. “[The farmers' market] will allow farmers to cut down on costs such as transportation and processing, since everything is kept local,” she said. “This is one of the easiest ways to support local agriculture.”

Selleck said the farmers’ market will have a variety of products, which “[don't] need to be limited to organics, though certainly [Epting Events] would like to keep them more people-friendly.”

“Having a farmer’s market year-round [means] customers know that they have a place to go to get the freshest products whenever they need it. I feel that having such a place will increase the support for local agriculture tremendously and help stimulate the local economy as well,” Perry said.

“There’s a lot of demand, and a lot of supply,” Selleck said. “We’re just trying to marry the two.”