Farmers market releases sketches of new home

The Calgary Farmers' Market has released sketches showing the renovations planned for its new southeast location, promising it will share the "hominess and warmth" of the current building.

The new building will be larger, have more natural light, a bigger food court, and an outdoor balcony, said spokesman Ken Aylesworth on Thursday.

The parking lot will also be paved and well lit, he said.

"The ambiance of the building will stay the same. We will never be able to recreate exactly what we have here unfortunately, but all the branding, the look, the feel, will be very similar," he said. "We certainly don't want to lose any of this hominess and warmth."

The co-operative has hired the same design company to work on the Blackfoot Centre site as it did for its current Currie Barracks site.

The lease expires on the market's current location at the end of November. Aylesworth said the market should be moved into the new location at Fifth Street and 77th Avenue S.E. by then or shortly after.

The new location will have 10,000 more square feet than the current location, but the same number of vendors. Already 87 per cent of the vendors at the southwest location are planning on making the move and there is a long list of new vendors wanting to come aboard, he said.

The redevelopment of the Blackfoot Centre site was set to cost $5 million, with eachvendor loaning the co-operative $100 per square foot, based on their stall's size, to help cover a shortfall in bank loans.

The new property is currently home to Heritage Flea Market and a shooting range. The Calgary Farmers' Market will be the third such operation in the southeast, along with the summertime Blackfoot Market andCrossroads Market.