Saskatoon may have a full-fledged farmers’ market up and running in the old location at River Landing come next spring. The City’s planning and development committee heard from Ideas, Inc. during Monday’s meeting. Ideas is the company looking to become the new operator.

Executive Director of Ideas, Depesh Parmar says the plan is to have an outdoor market run twice a week from May to October and a six-day a week market inside with 16 vendors. The outdoor portion would see up to 30 vendors offering their products during the warmer months. Parmar says the outdoor market will include a new component. “These two days would be on Saturday during the day and something new and exciting for Saskatoon, a night market during the week.”

If the lease is approved during the August 29th City Council meeting, the City will take on $150,000 dollars in costs for furniture in the common areas of the building. Ideas would cover the other half in payments over a period of five years. The goal is to have the new site ready to go by May 2023. The lease council will vote on is for a period of five years.

Back in 2018, the City began a RFP process seeking a new operator which was cancelled in 2019 after an inspection found the building’s roof needed significant repairs. Negotiations started in 2020 but were put off due to the pandemic.

The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative Ltd used to operate out of the facility, but wasn’t able to commit to being open six days a week. It has since moved to Koyl Avenue in north Saskatoon.