The Saskatoon Farmer’s Market expects to ink the deal on their new building, officially Thursday. Executive Director Erika Quiring says their lawyer is giving the document a final review.

It is for a 13-thousand square foot space on Koyl Avenue, of which they will occupy about a third, and a large parking lot. She says it’s about 400 square feet less than where they are now.

Approximately 70 per cent of the current vendors, who came out for a meeting on the weekend, voted to move to the new building.  She describes the cost of the building as a fair rate but considerably more than the approximate 110 thousand dollars they were paying in operating costs a year downtown. The Saskatoon Farmer’s Market was leasing that building from the city for $10 a year.

Quiring acknowledges not all of the current vendors will move to the north end with them but they are looking forward to the Saskatoon Farmer’s Market providing capacity for agricultural producers and they are looking at ways to recruit new agricultural vendors. She says the building configured right now as an office space so there will need to be some work done.

January, February and possibly all of March there will be a Saturday only market at a yet-to-be-finalized location in the city.

Quiring says she is also planning, later this week or early next week, to initiate a request for expressions of interest for potential concession operators.

The lease between the co-op and the City ends at the end of the year, that’s when the building will close for some time so that the roof can be repaired.