Calgary Farmers' Market announces new home

After months of searching, the Calgary Farmers' Market has confirmed plans to move toa southeast location just off Blackfoot Trail.

Theproperty, Blackfoot Centre, locatedat Fifth Street and 77th Avenue S.E., is currently home to Heritage Flea Market and a shooting range.

"We're extremely ecstatic to say the least," Ken Aylesworth, a spokesman for the Calgary Farmers' Market, said Thursday. "It's been a long road to get here. [It's] not an easy accomplishment to find a facility to handle the number of vendors and the number of customers that we have."

The Calgary Farmers' Market would be the third such operation in the southeast, along with the summertime Blackfoot Market and the Crossroads Market.

But Aylesworth said he hopes the proximity to Glenmore Trail, Blackfoot Trail,DeerfootTrail, and Heritage Drive will help bring more shoppers in from different parts of the city.

"I think that will benefit all of us so I think that's a good thing," he said.

The market is being forced to move because its current space in the southwest Currie Barracks is being developed into a new community. The lease there expires in November 2010.

While the market has signed a lease for the 55,000-square-foot Blackfoot Centre that starts in July 2010,the new location is subject to approval by the City of Calgary.