FDR Park’s Southeast Asian Market will find a permanent home in southwest corner of park, city announces

Vendors who work in the Southeast Asian Market, an open-air market and cornerstone of FDR Park, learned more about their future permanent home Thursday, as the park takes on a major transformation, spanning years.

The future home of the market is slated to go near the old tennis courts and skatepark in the southwest corner of FDR, just off of a slated 33-acre wetland project. With a location in mind, the planning and design of the structure can move forward using a $100,000 grant awarded to the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Department of Commerce last year.

Sarun Chan, executive director of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, welcomed the announcement in a statement.

“It represents not just an opportunity to grow their businesses, but as a further recognition that their city, and their neighbors, value the rich cultural experiences and flavors that the ethnically diverse Southeast Asian American community brings to Philadelphia’s public spaces and food scene,” she said.

The story goes, the market took root decades ago with a husband and wife who made papaya salad and chicken wings. By the 1990s, various Cambodian and Laotian stands began to join them. Over time the rows of Southeast Asian stands became a draw in the warmer months.

According to the city, a study of the market found vendors attracted close to 200,000 visitors per year, creating an economic impact of at least $5.75 million and at least 92 full-time jobs.

Preserving the beloved market has been a concern for many residents as Parks & Recreation moves forward with plans to reimagine the 348-acre space to maximize FDR’s use, while making it more resilient to climate change.

“A new, permanent home for the Southeast Asian market is an important milestone in the work to create a modern, welcoming park that provides consistent places for communities to gather without having to move constantly when the ground is flooded,” Fairmount Park Conservancy executive director Maura McCarthy in a statement.

The park broke ground on the first phase of its decade-long reimagining last May. By fall, residents and lawmakers increasingly raised concerns that the master plan, which was crafted before the pandemic, didn’t take into account residents’ new use of the park.

One of the most controversial aspects of the park redesign is the slated use of the former 150-acre golf course, which over the pandemic went back to its natural state and became a favorite for hiking and walking dogs. The space became affectionally called “the meadows.”

The FDR plans calls for part of the former golf course to be transformed into 12 multipurpose athletic fields and four fields dedicated to baseball and softball. Another 33 acres of the former golf course would be used to create a wetland and hill that would mitigate the park’s constant flooding.

Parks & Recreation and Fairmount Park Conservancy, which has been tasked by the city to fund-raise and implement the plan, have led information sessions to answer resident questions. The groups, joined by state lawmakers, were to host a community meeting beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday at Grand Yesha Ballroom in South Philadelphia regarding the plan’s progress.