From behind her vegetable stand at the St. Paul Farmers’ Market, Michelle Gagliardi doesn’t hesitate when asked what’s eating at her bottom line.

“Parking,” said Gagliardi, who has been selling produce at the St. Paul market for more than 30 years.

The number of visitors passing by her stand at the Farmers’ Market on weekends has dropped about 30 percent the past few years. Lowertown construction and parking changes are regular targets of blame.

But with hundreds of parking spots a block south, Jenessa Payano Stark of Glacial Ridge Growers isn’t convinced the parking problems are as bad as some let on. Development has removed some options, but loyal buyers adjust to new routines, she said.

“There’s a lot of parking out here,” said Stark. “People just need to be more aware of it.”

The Farmers’ Market has been a tradition in St. Paul dating back 160 years. Located in several downtown spots over the decades, the market moved to its current home in Lowertown in 1982.

In the years since, Lowertown has seen many of its old buildings remodeled and filled with residences and businesses. And landmarks such as the Union Depot have gotten a new life. It has also seen heavy construction with the new light-rail Green Line and a 7,000-seat ballpark.

Standing over two tables of spring rolls, egg rolls and fresh vegetables on a recent weekend, longtime vendor Lillian Hang called the month-old light rail a step up for the city, but not a cure for parking concerns.

“People like it. I really like it,” she said. “(But) parking is a pain. Parking is really, really hard.” And she says that’s because of the baseball field.

Being built next to the Farmers’ Market, the Lowertown ballpark is partly located on a lot that provided at least 250 free parking stalls for shoppers.

“That’s where over 50 percent of our customers parked,” said Jack Gerten, market manager for the St. Paul Growers Association, which oversees the Farmers’ Market. He’s been encouraging customers to park at roughly 750 parking spots that have opened at the Union Depot’s three lots on Kellogg Boulevard, with mixed success.

But Union Depot’s open-air surface lots east of Broadway Street, once free, now charge $1 to cover recent improvements, he said. The city has made designated parking meters free to use for Farmers’ Market customers for two hours on Saturdays, but many visitors still appear unaware of that benefit.

FALLING NUMBERS

The St. Paul Farmers’ Market remains the largest, if not the only, major draw to Lowertown on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Headcounts of customers, however, show the number of visitors has been sliding.

As many as 12,000 customers would shop at the Farmers’ Market on a Saturday or Sunday morning as recently as five or six years ago, Gerten said. A headcount this past May shows “7,600-8,000, is where we are now,” Gerten said. Most of the drop “has come since they began construction on the (light) rail.”

Three counts are conducted annually, and it won’t be until a third count is done in the fall that a clearer picture will emerge.

Gerten acknowledges that parking problems probably aren’t the only factor affecting the Lowertown location. Farmers’ markets of all sizes have sprung up across the metro area, fueling competition.

The growers association runs about 20 of the 160 farmers’ markets in the Twin Cities metro, “and if you talk to any retailer, sometimes their loss is somebody else’s gain,” Gerten said. “There’s a lot of farmers’ markets, and if people have trouble parking, they’ll stick to markets closer to their own community.”

SOUL SEARCHING

Lowertown’s growing popularity has forced some soul searching for the Farmers’ Market and has inspired discussions with Union Depot managers about possibly relocating there in years to come. A decision may be well in the future.

“The subject has come up the last few years,” Gerten said. “We want to wait and see how it all ties in with the Saints, and the light rail. If it ends up being a bottleneck, then maybe.”

Discussions are moving forward with the minor-league baseball team, which will occupy the city’s new $63 million ballpark in 2015. Annie Huidekoper, vice president of community partnerships for the Saints, emphasized that the team sees the Farmers’ Market as an asset and an added draw for ballpark visitors.

“We love the fact that they’re going to be our neighbors … and are going to adjust our schedule to be respectful of their long tradition,” she said.

As a counterpoint to parking concerns, St. Paul officials point to the new Green Line option, which can carry hundreds of visitors to the ballpark or Farmers’ Market without filling a single parking stall.

And there are more than 7,000 parking spaces in Lowertown, not including contract lots, says Brad Meyer, a spokesman for St. Paul Parks and Recreation. And on Sundays, downtown St. Paul’s 1,600 street meters are free.

“There is more than enough available parking in Lowertown to meet the current and future needs of the neighborhood,” Meyer said. “The Union Depot has been beautifully restored and would complement the Farmers’ Market if they decide to move.”

FINDING A NEW HOME

Ray Sell has reservations about moving the market.

A fourth-generation grower from Farmington, he pointed to the existing location’s covered sheds between Fourth and Fifth streets.

“I like the sheds,” Sell said. “I don’t want to bring tents. Tents blow away, and it rains.”

City council member Dave Thune said he has no desire to see the Farmers’ Market relocate. Instead, he’d like to see the market add a permanent stand for bicycle taxis.

“I like it where it is,” Thune said of the market. “There are solutions. We need to act on them, though.”

Gerten said that over the years he’s experimented with trolley-style buses and shuttle buses. Last year, bicycle taxis operated on donations from passengers and a subsidy from the growers association. None of those efforts seemed to pay off.

“They didn’t move enough volume of people,” Gerten said. “You can’t get the numbers high enough to make it worth it.”

Gagliardi, who farms in Harris, Minn., and grew up selling vegetables in St. Paul with her grandfather, said she’d welcome the move to Union Depot, as her sales have declined at her existing location.

“When people do find a spot to park, they get a ticket, because they’re parked in the wrong spot or the wrong lot,” she said. “People come back and say they’ve gone to a market closer to their home.”

LIGHT-RAIL EFFECTS

It’s unclear how the new light-rail line from downtown Minneapolis to downtown St. Paul will factor into the future of the Farmers’ Market.

For now, officials are urging residents to give up the car once or twice a month and use the rail, Gerten said. But he worries that many customers may hesitate carrying multiple bags of produce on the trains at once.

“You’re not going to be able to take it carrying a bushel of tomatoes or a couple big hanging baskets,” Gerten said. “The rail’s not really practical for that.”

With three generations of family in tow, Sylvia Hill of Burnsville took the Blue Line and Green Line to the Farmers’ Market on a recent Saturday. The trip from the 28th Avenue station near the Mall of America in Bloomington took 90 minutes.

“It’s not an efficient way to get down here,” she said.

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172.

Follow him at twitter.com/FrederickMelo.

Correction: Due to incorrect provided information, the number of parking stalls at the Union Depot on Kellogg Boulevard was inaccurate in some versions of this story. The depot has 750 parking stalls.