Committee approves new vision for Farmers' Market Building
The Farmers' Market Building at River Landing is a step closer to reopening.
Members of council's development committee unanimously approved a proposed lease offer from Ideas. Inc. Monday.
The once bustling building at the corner of Avenue A and 19th Street will see renewed life again next Spring if council approves the lease agreement at its full meeting later in the month.
“It’s something that Saskatoon is missing and it will be well received by patrons,” Tanner Michalenko, community manager with Ideas Inc. told CTV News.
Ideas Inc. will fulfill requirements for the soon to be renovated space based on the city's stipulations.
“We’re going to operate six days a week at this location here and within that we’ll have two dedicated farmers market days in season,” Michalenko said.
Called Gather Local Market, the collection of 16 partitioned stalls will be available to local vendors at the centre of the building. Eight local restaurants and six craft brewers and distillers will also be part of the new building. Locally sourced grocery products and artisans selling their wares is also part of the plan.
It’s a positive step forward, according to the executive director of the Riversdale Business Improvement District.
“It’s been a long time coming and the proven success has been demonstrated the investment into Riversdale and 20th Street (and) The Banks across the street here,” Randy Pshebylo told CTV News.
The Banks housing development was was built in 2014 and the selling feature according to Pshebylo was the farmers' market across the street, but vacancy rates dropped when the market closed in 2020 after the Saskatoon Farmers' Market Co-operative Ltd and the city's relationship soured when the co-operative was unable to commit to animating the area for six days a week.
The city issued a request for proposals in 2018 to find a permanent tenant, then cited much-needed repairs to the aging former electrical garage roof as the reason for withdrawing the request for proposals.
Repairs were slated to begin in January 2020 and expected to take at least three months to complete. After COVID-19 uncertainty stalled any progress, demolition and construction work began in June 2020.
The hope is vacancy rate problems won't be a problem any longer with Ideas' commitment.
“No one’s an island here including this farmers' market, and we all need each other,” Pshebylo said.
About 10 vendors have approached Ideas Inc. so far wanting to join the project.
“I just think it’s so unique and so different from what we’ve seen before and something we’ve never been involved in before and we’re looking forward to the opportunity,” Liam McKercher, general manager of Crossmount Cider Company told CTV News.
Crossmount is one of those businesses that will add to the thirty vendors that will call this building home.
“This is something we’re really committed to and it’s something that we think will be a really good aspect to add to our city,” he said.
The farmers market component will operate mainly outside in Market Square twice a week between May and October, and a night market is also part of the plan.
Ideas would pay $10 per year for five years and would take on utilities, cleaning, snow clearing and other costs, as part of the proposed lease.
The city could lose a little over $50,000 in potential revenue over the course of the five-year lease.
Administration is also recommending the city contribute $150,000, to purchase furnishings for the common areas, with 50 per cent coming from the reserve budget for capital expenditures and 50 per cent from Ideas Inc.
Gather is scheduled to open in May 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.