The Omaha Farmers Market finished its 2026 Old Market season on Saturday, October 10. Four days earlier, a few blocks east, organizers stood above the riverfront and showed renderings of a building meant to make that kind of closing date unnecessary. It is a year-round, indoor, nonprofit public market at 8th and Farnam. Site work has already started. The projected opening is summer 2028, and by the city's timeline that is also the year the Omaha streetcar begins carrying passengers on the downtown loop that runs past the same corner.
Downtown's east end will gain two year-round reasons to show up in the same season. Until then it runs on the calendar it has always had. The produce stalls are gone for the year, the winter crowds come for scheduled events, and the blocks between them are torn up for track.
What Closed on October 10
The Omaha Farmers Market's Old Market location ran its 2026 season from May 2 through October 10, from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 11th and Jackson. That comes to just over five months of Saturday mornings. The Old Market won't host another downtown produce market until next spring.
The market's winter event doesn't come back to the Old Market. The 2026 Holiday Market is December 5 and 6 at Aksarben Village, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with free admission. Anyone who wants to buy from local vendors downtown between October and May will be looking somewhere other than the Old Market.
The proposal at 8th and Farnam is aimed at exactly that gap.
What Is Planned at 8th and Farnam
Grow Omaha's report on the October 6 unveiling describes a three-story, 50,000-square-foot building with floor-to-ceiling windows, set into the hill overlooking Heartland of America Park at The RiverFront. Here is what the plans include so far:
- A market floor with room for dozens of vendors selling fresh, prepared and specialty foods and locally made goods. WOWT reported a capacity of up to 35 vendors.
- A teaching kitchen, flexible programming areas and rentable event spaces
- Outdoor seating and event areas that connect to the interior
Heritage Omaha is leading the project. It is raising the private donations to build and support the market and overseeing construction. Project for Public Spaces is helping with business planning, community engagement and design. According to organizers, the plans drew on input from thousands of people around the metro, including farmers, makers, and current and future food entrepreneurs.
Jerrica Marshall is the market's inaugural executive director. Her background fits the gap described above. She managed the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market, led The Directors Council, and built a small business program for entrepreneurs, all part of more than 10 years in community and economic development, public markets and events. Roger Weitz, who chairs the Omaha Market Trust board, introduced her at the event. Grow Omaha quoted him:
"Her leadership will help us reach our goal of expanding access to nourishing foods and community experiences while uplifting local producers."
The operative words are "year-round." Downtown already has a farmers market. What the plan adds is a December and a February.
The Streetcar Shares the Corner and the Calendar
The market site isn't a quiet construction zone. The Omaha streetcar's downtown construction update for the week of October 12 puts the downtown loop's utility work, along 10th, Capitol, 8th and Farnam, at 90% complete, with downtown mainline track construction underway. The same update lists lane closures on the north side of Farnam and the south side of Harney for track work.
Side by side, the two projects look like this:
| Public market | Omaha streetcar | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | 8th and Farnam, above Heartland of America Park | Downtown loop on 10th, Capitol, 8th and Farnam |
| Status in October 2026 | Site work underway | Downtown utilities 90% complete, mainline track in progress |
| Next phase | Vendors not yet selected | Testing and commissioning, 2027 to 2028 |
| Projected opening | Summer 2028 | Service in 2028 |
Both dates are projections. The city's streetcar timeline schedules testing for 2027 to 2028 and service for 2028, and the official updates don't yet show vehicles on site or testing underway. Back in March, WOWT reported Mayor John Ewing saying corridor conditions would start improving later in 2026. That was a forecast, not a finish date.
If both hold their schedules, the corner at 8th and Farnam goes from no daily draw and no transit line to an all-season market on a streetcar loop in roughly the same months. Until then, the reasons to come downtown this winter are mostly fixed dates on a calendar.
The Winter Between, Date by Date
With the Saturday market done, downtown's east end runs on scheduled events through the holidays. The firm 2026 dates:
| Date | Event | Where | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri, Oct 23 | DJ Skate Night | The RiverFront | 6 to 10 p.m., Halloween costumes, mixed music |
| Sat, Nov 28 | Holiday Lights Festival lighting ceremony | Gene Leahy Mall | Music at 5 p.m., ceremony at 6 p.m. |
| Fri and Sat nights, through the season | RiverFront multimedia show | Gene Leahy Mall | About seven minutes, runs every hour |
| Sat–Sun, Dec 5–6 | Omaha Holiday Market | Aksarben Village | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., free admission |
| Sun, Dec 6 | KETV Family Festival | Downtown venues | 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., free Ollie the Trolley and charter buses between stops |
| Thu, Dec 31 | New Year's Eve Fireworks Spectacular | Near Heartland of America Park | 7 p.m., meters free after 5 p.m. |
The Holiday Lights Festival program at Gene Leahy Mall, produced by The RiverFront, adds color-changing up lights, video projected onto the Performance Pavilion and the Burlington Building, and holiday video on the 10th Street Bridge LED wall. The festival's lights also cover the Old Market from 10th to 13th Streets, between Farnam and Jackson. One scheduling detail: the festival's homepage banner says the season starts November 29, but its event schedule puts the lighting ceremony on Saturday, November 28. Go by the schedule.
The KETV Family Festival on December 6 is the one day the east end works like a connected district. Stops include the Omaha Police Mounted Patrol Barn, The Durham Museum, the Omaha Children's Museum, the downtown branch of the Omaha Public Library, Heartland of America Park and Joslyn Art Museum, with free trolleys and buses running between them.
For New Year's Eve, organizers dropped designated viewing areas and set parking. The fireworks go off near Heartland of America Park, and the festival says the show can be watched from virtually anywhere downtown, with the soundtrack broadcast live on STAR 104.5. That park sits directly below the future market site.
What Isn't Settled Yet
The October 6 announcement left several practical questions open, and each one affects what the market will be like to visit:
- Vendors. None have been selected. Prospective vendors can sign up for updates at publicmarketomaha.org.
- Cost and donors. The coverage gave no total project cost and named no donors. Heritage Omaha is raising private money.
- Its relationship to the Omaha Farmers Market. Nothing published so far describes a formal tie between the new market and the existing Saturday market at 11th and Jackson.
- Ice skating dates. The RiverFront hasn't posted a confirmed 2026–27 opening date or season pricing for skating at Heartland of America Park.
- Street conditions this winter. The track work and lane closures on Farnam and Harney are current as of the October 12 update. The streetcar project posts weekly downtown updates.
Until 2028, the Old Market's produce season still ends in October, the holiday market still moves to Aksarben, and the east end's winter draw is a set of scheduled events, from the lighting ceremony and weekend light shows through the New Year's Eve fireworks.
If you own near downtown or the riverfront, or you're weighing a home along the streetcar corridor, it helps to know what is actually scheduled for those blocks. Schedule a free consultation with The Home Team. We'll talk through what the market and streetcar timelines could mean for the property you have in mind, using the same builder's eye we bring to every construction schedule.
