Saskatoon Farmers’ Market bids farewell to River Landing

The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market celebrated a final day of operations at its River Landing location Sunday.

It’s a bittersweet ending to another chapter for the 44-year-old market as it gets set to move to a new location near the airport in 2020.

Gail Vandersteen has been a member of the co-operative that manages the market for 25 years and couldn’t speak highly enough of the former city electrical garages they recreated into a year-round bustling marketplace during the 12-year stay.

“I remember what it looked like here before, and it was a no-go area,” she said. “It has really turned into an amazing neighbourhood. I’ve spent most of my life here and I’ve seen this city resurrect itself in amazing ways. I think whoever comes here, it’ll be fine… we’ve already laid the foundation for them.”

Jim Hodges and Don Kossick are members of Friends of the Farmer’s Market, a group of people who fought until the final days to save the market’s current location. The pair has previously spent hours compiling hundreds of signatures to petition the City of Saskatoon — the owners of the building — to extend the group’s lease.

On this day they were two people reminiscing over a final cup of coffee from The Square Cup, a popular booth at the River Landing market.

Some of the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market’s final customers shop as the co-operative closed the doors for the year. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

“Every town should have a public square where people can gather,” Hodges said, speaking to what the city will be missing once the doors close for good.

“People come here and feel very, very comfortable.”

City officials expected the site to be “animated”  for six days a week and began voicing those concerns in 2018.

After plenty of arguing with the city, the farmers’ market was eventually forced out after a renewal for the lease was declined and a request for proposals was issued in October 2018 and quickly withdrawn after damage to the building’s roof were discovered.

Repairs are slated to start in the new year and are expected to take at least three months to complete.

Now the public square in the heart of the city will remain empty as the co-operative secured a 10-year lease at a building near the airport on Koyl Avenue.

Cossick thinks the whole situation could have been avoided.

“They were forced to leave, and now they’re forced to try to go and make another farmers’ market, but in the first place it should never have happened,” Cossick said. ” (The City) pushed out the farmers’ market, an anchor. Now they’re looking for whatever else, but I think there’s a lot of really wrong thinking going on. Let’s work with an anchor like this rather than seeing them put out near the airport.”

Vandersteen said much of the support seen over the last decade proves that crowds will follow to its new space. Not worried about losing easy access, foot traffic or cyclists that come to the central location, she feels bus routes and a possible shuttle service could make the Koyl Avenue location busier than River Landing.

“I’ll have very good memories here of people who hopefully follow us along,” she said. “We have a 10-year lease. We might end up some place downtown in 10 years — you don’t know.”

Revitalizing Riversdale

One thing that can’t be doubted is the impact the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market had on the neighbourhood. While many people wondered why the market wanted to move to Riversdale 12 years ago, those same questions are being asked about its departure.

“The amazing thing is the change it has brought,” Vandersteen said. “We’ve taken the fear out of people that want to live downtown — it’s not a scary thing anymore.”

Before the farmers’ market, there were no salons, cafés, boutiques, restaurants or a public spaces to gather in the neighbourhood.

“What the farmers’ market added was the ingredient necessary to turn this place into a place even community members feeling safer,” Hodges said looking back at the vacant area that was previously known for its crime.

“We can call is gentrification to a certain extent, but the best part was that it was slow. It’s actually kind of an active area night and day.”