10/05/2026
If you read about us in the newspaper today, thank you for taking a few minutes to learn a little more about The Market Hub, its part in out greater vision, parts of our history and what local opportunities we are trying to build.
There is an important part of our story we want people to understand.
The Market Hub was never created simply to give people another place to shop local during the week.
It grew from many years of working with small vendors and businesses through the Lake Placid Farmers Market, seeing and hearing the same challenges over and over again and wanting to find ways to help. Someone can make an incredible product, build a following at a Saturday market, and still not have opportunities, resources nor capacity to navigate all the layers and find ways to take that next step.
A storefront is expensive. A commercial kitchen is expensive. Staffing is expensive. Plus all the other things that very easily become barriers. Seeing the frustrations, the struggles, and the overwhelm caused us to start asking different questions:
~ How do we create a shared space, shared resources & collaboration that would allow small local businesses to grow without individually having to build everything by themselves?
~Can we help turn a good idea, a talent or a hobby into something that has a chance to become a sustainable small business in our community,
~Can we help them navigate the paperwork, merchandising, purchasing, costs & pricing, supply and demand, and
~Can we be a bridge to give our community more opportunities to support their neighbors and to keep their dollars right here in Highlands County?
The Lake Placid Farmer’s Market - FL gives hobbyists and entrepreneurs a place to start, explore the potential of their craft and meet customers. The Holiday Market gives even more small businesses an opportunity to share their creations. Tastes of Highlands Wednesday Evening Food Events creates a place for local chefs, bakers, food truck owners, restaurateurs and cottage makers to be discovered and the community to taste their creations.
The Market Hub on Main gives locally made products a storefront retail foundation. The Market Hub Bakery & Kitchen on Interlake gives food businesses access to commercial production space, retail food product sales and another way to reach customers.
Our vision is still evolving, and we have bigger visions for what is possible, but seeing the parts coming together that we had envisioned many years ago is extremely gratifying and humbling. We are still learning what works, what is sustainable and how to balance supporting the local businesses while covering the very real costs of creating the infrastructure and support to offer our current while adding more aspiring businesses local opportunities.