In March, downtown Sanford cut the ribbon on a new building at 157 Charlotte Avenue, drawing a crowd of about 500 people. Near the entrance sat a red Farmall tractor from the Condlin family farm, driven onto the site by volunteer Reggie Carde during the project's groundbreaking back in 2024 and parked there in memory of 1st Sgt. Bernard "BC" Condlin, who died in 2018. That ribbon cutting marked the opening of the Pilgrim's Sanford Agricultural Marketplace, and it is the single most important thing that has happened to downtown Sanford this year. Not because a market opened. Because of what happens to it next, this fall, and what that says about which parts of downtown are actually built to last.
If you have lived downtown for more than a season, you already know the other half of this story: storefronts turn over constantly. That is not new information, and it is not really news. What is worth your attention is the one building on Charlotte Avenue that keeps growing every single season while everything around it churns.
The Sanford Visitors Guide update published in early August logged the usual mix. New arrivals include El Tomatillo Taqueria on First Street, Pretty Little Things on Sanford Avenue next to Diversion, House of Cam inside Diversion, Pierogi Bros bringing Polish food to the dining scene, and Lechonera La Marina serving Puerto Rican cuisine on Marina Island. Russell's Saloon reopened on French Avenue after relocating from its previous spot as District 7. Down the block, Wedgies, the sandwich shop that started in Southern Pines, is preparing a second location inside the old Java Express space.
The same update said goodbye to Shantell's Soul Food, Fuel BBQ, Brix & Mortar Urban Winery, Pedal Driven Co., and Board & Brush. None of that is a downtown in trouble. It is a downtown behaving exactly like every small commercial district behaves. Restaurants and boutiques have thin margins and short leases. Some make it. Some don't. If you are trying to read the health of Sanford's core from which storefronts have a sign in the window this month, you are reading the wrong signal.
Here is the one that matters. The Sanford Farmers' Market has operated downtown for years, most recently out of a parking lot behind the old McSwain Extension Center on Tramway Road. Back in 2019 it drew a handful of vendors to a spot that got little foot traffic from anyone who wasn't already headed there. By 2022, it was pulling around 700 shoppers a week. This year, operating from its new home inside the Agricultural Marketplace, the Sanford Tourism Development Authority projects as many as 68,000 visitors across the 2026 season, with roughly 40 percent of them coming from outside Lee County.
Here's how that growth actually stacked up:
| Season | What downtown had |
|---|---|
| 2019 | A handful of vendors in a parking lot off Tramway Road |
| 2022 | About 700 shoppers a week |
| 2025 | 28 to 30 vendors weekly |
| 2026 | 40 vendors, capacity for up to 52, projected 68,000 visitors for the season |
Sanford Tourism Development Authority director Wendy Bryan put it plainly: the market has become the county's "number one entry point for visiting downtown." That is not a line about ambiance. It's a claim about where people's feet actually go first, and it stands in sharp contrast to how national chains have chosen to grow here. Chipotle and the coming Dairi-O are both taking their share of Sanford's growth to the N.C. 87 corridor. Downtown's pull is coming from the pavilion, not from a drive-thru lane.
The market itself opened its first Saturday on April 4. What opens next, sometime this fall, is the part that should actually change your downtown over the next few years: a commercial kitchen built into the Agricultural Marketplace, designed to pass commercial inspection for anyone who wants to bottle a sauce, bake for wholesale, or test a food concept without sinking twenty to fifty thousand dollars into upgrading a personal kitchen.
That number is the whole story. A home cook with a sauce recipe good enough to sell, or a baker who has been doing farmers market tables on the side, has historically faced a five-figure barrier just to legally produce at scale. The commercial kitchen removes that barrier. It means the next Pierogi Bros or Lechonera La Marina downtown does not need outside investors or a lucky lease. It can start at 157 Charlotte Avenue, on a Saturday, with a folding table and a health inspection that's already been done for them.
None of this happened by accident. The Marketplace is the first built piece of a larger effort called Sanford Central Green, which is meant to stretch from Charlotte Avenue and First Street all the way to the Sanford Municipal Center on Weatherspoon Street. The plan includes restoring Little Buffalo Creek to its natural, winding path (the creek was straightened decades ago, which worsened flooding as downtown's green space shrank), a greenway connector, and a future mobility hub. A $1.1 million grant from the North Carolina Emergency Management Disaster Relief and Mitigation Fund is already committed to the creek restoration.
Read that way, the Marketplace isn't a standalone amenity. It's the anchor end of a corridor the city has spent two decades assembling piece by piece, buying up the old King Roofing building, the Love's Grocery site, and the Singer building along the way specifically to make this connection possible. The commercial kitchen opening this fall is a small piece of civic infrastructure, but it's attached to a much larger bet on downtown's shape for the next generation.
The market runs Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon through the end of November, so there's still a full season left to catch it. Temple Theatre, a block over on Carthage Street, has a fall lineup worth building a weekend around: 1776: An American Musical runs September 10 through 27, with tickets ranging from $25 to $40, followed by Little Women from October 15 through November 1. The Boo & Brew Ghost Tour Weekend takes over 229 Carthage Street starting at 5 p.m. on October 29. Downtown wraps the season with its Holiday Open House on November 8, starting at noon.
If you're keeping score on downtown Sanford by counting open and closed signs, you'll always be a season behind, because that number resets constantly and always has. The number that doesn't reset is the one tracking who's walking through the Marketplace on a Saturday morning, and that number has grown every single year since the market first set up in a parking lot. This fall's real milestone isn't another restaurant name to remember. It's a commercial kitchen door opening on Charlotte Avenue, and the next few years of downtown storefronts may well trace back to who walks through it first.
If you're already living the Sanford version of Moore County life, this is the kind of local rhythm worth knowing, whether you're deciding where to spend a Saturday or just keeping track of what your town is becoming. And if a season ever comes when you're thinking about your own next move here, whether that's a bigger yard, a shorter commute to the market, or something entirely different, Jamie McDevitt is always glad to talk through what that could look like. Let's Connect.
Jamie will take the time to understand your goals and will work tirelessly to help you reach them. Whether you are moving to the Pinehurst, Southern Pines area to play golf, swing a tennis racket, or simply run or walk through your neighborhood, let Jamie work for you.
