New community market for Saskatoon delayed due to costs

Saskatoon’s plans to open the ‘Gather Local Market’ in the Farmers Market Building have been delayed due to costs.

The market at 414 Avenue B South was expected to open in May of this year, but cost and design issues have pushed the project to a potential, delayed opening in October.

General manager for the city, Lynne Lacroix, told the Standing Policy Committee on Planning, Development and Community Services on Wednesday that the original plans had to be revised.

“As we were obtaining detailed cost estimates for the final design it was determined the entire scope of the work would likely not be able to be completed within the approved budget, “ she said during the meeting.

“Part of the scope we had to take out just to ensure that we were within our budget was the market vendor stalls that are on the west and north sides of the building.”

She said if they were able to get the project within the budget they might be able to include the vendor stalls.

“We won't know until we actually get the construction bids in mid-April and then we'll determine from there if we can include the market vendor spaces.”

Lacroix said one option would be to have vendors do the work.

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“We would potentially open the building without the market vendor stalls in place,” she said. “That's not to say that there couldn't be market vendors still open in this space. They just would have to construct vendor spaces themselves.”

With the revised plan, only 14 spaces for restaurants and liquor vendors are included.

“The administration remains committed to ensuring that we indeed have the best available building, that we're doing it within our means as we go forward and we'll continue to explore opportunities for additional funding to continue to add to the quality of this great building as we go along,” Lacroix said. “It may mean some slightly fewer vendor stalls when we do open but again, it's something we can continue to build on collaboratively with our partner at Ideas Inc. as we go.”

Ideas Inc. was approved for a five-year lease of the building last August. As part of the contract, the company would pay the city $10 per year and be responsible for costs like utilities, cleaning, and snow clearing.

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.

With files from Keenan Sorokan, Carla Shynkaruk.