P.G. Farmers’ Market Secures Year Round Home
Thursday, August 16, 2012 @ 8:54 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The Prince George Farmers’ Market has found a new site for its year round operations.
The Market moved out of the old Morrison’s Men’s Wear building at the corner of 3rd and George this spring after the landlord served notice the rent was to be increased.
While the Market operates in Wilson Square on Saturday’s throughout the summer and into the early fall, a site for a year round venue has been secured.
The P.G. Farmers’ Market will be moving into a building on 6th behind the Keg Restaurant, across from the old Norgate Autobody building.
“We wanted to keep the market downtown and we wanted to tie the outdoor and indoor operations” says Association President Nancie Krushelnicki. “ Just to be clear, starting next year, the outdoor portion of the farmers market will be moving to the parking lot of our new building.” So that means after October 13th of this year, the outdoor portion will no longer be set up at Wilson Square in front of the Courthouse, it will move to the new site.
The new building will be open for business October 20th and will be open every Saturday. Then, come next spring, the outdoor market will be hosted in the 6th Avenue parking lot.
The building is owned by the City and Krushelnicki says the City has been very generous in the development of the lease “We are very appreciative of their efforts.”
The Farmers’ Market has some upgrades to do to the building, some new drywall, some paint and some roof patching are being done. They have a five year lease on the building and there are “options” beyond that time frame.
Comments
We hope it won’t smell musty and gross in there!!
So your going from your beautiful location of the courthouse to a old back parking lot surrounded by a parkade, bent and rusted parking lot light standards, dumpsters and an old auto body shop. Not to mention looking up onto queensway and all the vehicles going by. Loses its appeal for me.
Actually, I think that’s a better spot for it. Will help infuse some life into that part of the town and I think there are better parking options (like at City Hall).
The courthouse location was a very nice site, it also brought attention to other merchants along George, 4th and 3rd Ave.
But it is too late for any discussion or input, apparently a 5 year lease has been signed. Let’s just wish them well.
While it is nice to see the Farmers Market get a new home, I agree that the location is less than ideal for the outdoor market in the summer months. Behind the Keg is a creepy area. The Wilson square location is much, much prettier, and more open.
I am glad to see the city leasing some of that real estate it owns, instead of having it sit empty.
With ( more ) legitimate traffic due to the Farmer’s Market, the area will be more amenable to those who find it creepy or lacking in appeal. The whole idea here is for city dwellers to fuel up on local produce, bread, meat etc. whilst supporting local artisans. Give it some time and the area will have more appeal, in my opinion. To the nervous; you’ll find safety in the crowds of market supporters.
metalman.
I think it will be a fine location. Along with fixing the indoor location, hopefully the outdoor portion will be cleaned up as well. It will add a little bit of class to an area that could use some improvement. Win, win, as far as I’m concerned.
It’s also good to see the market finding a viable alternative, rather than closing up shop for the winter.
Just curious if the landlord of Morrison’s has something else planned for that location? That whole section of street needs a total re-fit.
“Just curious if the landlord of Morrison’s has something else planned for that location? That whole section of street needs a total re-fit.”
Go and have a look. There are renovations going on. I have been unable to go to town so will be interested to see how far they have come.
I think it is more an artisan market rather than a farmers market. PG is not the only one which continues to use terminology that is misleading, I have found that in other communities recently.
It will be interesting to see how many people will come downtown to “window shop” in the new location. The current location is very pleasant for strolling, sitting on the steps, sitting at the corner coffee shop (which is not as comfortable as the one which burned down).
The current location has several natural street ammenities which will be missed in the new location. Keep in mind that much or all of it likely has to stay as a parking lot for the rest of the week (at least that is what I am assuming).
The one thing the new location has that old doesn’t is the beautiful park plaza in front of City Hall. It’s a great spot to sit and enjoy the sites. The old location didn’t have many spots to sit back and relax.
I’m looking forward to the new location and all the great work the market will do to bring liven to that corner of downtown.
Good luck to you .. Nice to have a place to call home :)
Metalman nailed it. Congrats on the new location; the FM is perhaps the nicest amenity downtown. Nice to see the City throw their support behind it.
I think this is great news. Having a year round market is much better than not having one, so the actual location is less important. Besides, as others have said, this will help the new area to get spruced up a bit.
If you don’t like the downtown market, check out the university market, with the same vendors but on a weekday on campus from September to April.
The Farmers Market is just another avenue to beat the tax man and I think it sucks.
I suspect that the Ohh Chocolat Cafe will be one of the beneficiaries of having the artisan market at the south end of George Street.
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