Smart farmers don't brag about their crops at the start of the season, but the forecast is looking good for a new produce and local food market to open year-round in Akron.

Peninsula-based Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy and developer Joel Testa are working to open a market beneath the existing Northside Marketplace, located just off North Howard Street in the Northside District.

Conservancy executive director Tracy Emrick said the lease was still being reviewed last week. But she said the conservancy board has unanimously approved the plan and she's eager to move forward.

"If a market is the sign of a great city, Akron's fortunate, because it's getting one," Emrick said. "It's really exciting for us. We're really tickled about it."

The nonprofit holds outdoor farmers markets in season at Will Christy Park near Highland Square and in Peninsula. In the winter, it operates an indoor market in Bath.

Those steadily have been growing in sales and attendance as more people embrace healthier foods and locally grown items, Emrick said.

But the indoor space the new market is expected to occupy would enable it to be open year-round and offer produce and value-added food products like those found in local markets in other major cities. Ideally, it will become Akron's version of Cleveland's West Side Market or the North Market in Columbus, Emrick said, even if it never becomes quite as large as those.

"We do farmers markets and, we've been in that business for about 20 years. … We operate three really fantastic farmers markets, but this particular project is really going to take the farmers market concept to the next level," Emrick said.

A date for the market's opening hasn't been set, but Countryside wants to take full advantage of the coming growing season, according to Emrick.

"It will definitely be open this year — and soon," she said.

Open all year doesn't mean open all the time, though. Like similar markets, the new space plans to be open only certain days of the week, probably Saturday and Sunday, Emrick said.

That's a model that's been successful in other cities for decades. It's also one that still provides downtown residents a chance to do regular shopping while providing a place for established food makers in the city to open a second site to increase their exposure, Emrick said.

The project has strong local backing. Prominent Akron grocer Phil Nabors, who owns the Mustard Seed Market & Cafe, a big driver of the local and sustainable food movement, is extremely supportive, Emrick said.

"He'd better be. He's one of our board members and he voted for it, too," she said with a chuckle.

Nabors confirmed he's fully on board.

"I indeed seconded the motion and voted yay, and the motion passed unanimously," Nabors said.

Testa said he's working with Emrick's group to help develop about 10,000 square feet of space beneath the Northside Marketplace, which serves as an incubator for new and niche retailers in Akron.

Testa said he thinks the space can accommodate between 50 and 60 vendors. Because it's in a parking garage, it also can do some things that most indoor markets can't, he said.

"It has a carbon-monoxide evacuation system. That gives us the ability to bring food trucks in, so we could basically have street festivals, indoors," Testa said.

Emrick said they've yet to start recruiting or accepting tenants. The new market doesn't even have a name yet and came together quickly over about a two-month period, she added.

Testa said he's convinced that finding vendors to occupy the market will not be a problem.

He already has 80 vendors on a waiting list for space in the retail market upstairs and thinks that demand will carry over to the new food market as well, he said.

Those who support the continued redevelopment and repopulation of downtown say the planned market will be a welcome addition and an important advance in making downtown more livable.

Right now, the about 2,600 downtown residents often have to travel to do their grocery shopping, said Suzie Graham, president of the Downtown Akron Partnership.There are drugstores, convenience stores and others with some food items, but nothing like a full grocery store and certainly nothing like Cleveland's West Side Market with its array of food.

Graham gives Countryside's existing markets high marks for their organization and selection of local foods and providers.

The timing is perfect to establish something like the planned market, because the downtown population is growing and more visitors are coming, too, thanks to improvements to the Towpath Trail, increased traffic on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (which has a nearby station) and hotels beginning to open in the city. All of that is within easy walking distance to the Northside site, she noted.

"What's exciting about this initiative is that the geography ties into hotel guests, it ties into people using the Towpath Trail and it ties into new residences at the Northside area. … Those three audiences are already readily available," Graham said.

Countryside hopes to take advantage of all of that, as well as the projected growth of downtown's population.

"There's a lot of residential coming up, and they're going to need a place to go get something to eat," Emrick said.

What's more, Emrick and Graham said, the market is likely a good fit for downtown's growing population, which tends to lean toward millennials and other younger residents who are attuned to new food trends, not the least of which is an emphasis on locally grown and sustainable products.

Plus, the younger set doesn't like to drive as much as previous generations.

"Local food is a booming industry right now. Especially with people who work in the health fields, and downtown has a lot of those," Emrick said.