Expect tiny farmers’ markets to be popping up in Barrie this summer.
While approving, in principle, the concept of a Barrie Bayside Market Area on Monday night, council also gave the OK for pop-up market days at city recreation and community centres, libraries and park locations, along with $25,000 in funding.
“This can just be another thing that helps delight our residents and brings the Barrie Farmers’ Market across the city to different locations,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman. “The intention is the farmers’ market hopes to do it this summer.”
Barrie Bayside Market Area involves converting the Maple Avenue transit terminal to a year-round market, as well as constructing a new Barrie Farmers’ Market building of at least 10,000 square feet nearby. The goal is to have it open in 2024.
The city will either hire a contract position or a consultant with a budget of $100,000 in 2022, funded from the reinvestment reserve, and consideration of additional funding would be presented to council in subsequent budgets.
“It’s to make it clear that $100,000 is not going to bring everything we want in terms of planning for the market,” said Deputy Mayor Barry Ward, chairman of the market precinct task force. “It’s going to take a lot more money than that. This is just the beginning phase.
“It’s going to obviously cost more that that to do a lot of the planning work for the market in future years," he added.
Lehman said the pop-up market days would help the Barrie Farmers’ Market for the move to Maple Avenue.
“They are very much of a growth mindset. They want to grow the number of vendors and the time that the farmers' market is open by going to additional days," he said. "So by the time this building is ready in a couple of years, they’re even bigger and better and operating on more than just Saturday mornings but other days of the week as well, to make better use of the building and bring the market to more people.”
Doing pop-ups across Barrie, offering fresh fruit and vegetables, is a step in that direction.
“I can’t think of a better way to introduce them to residents who might not otherwise get downtown to the farmers’ market on a Saturday morning than to have a pop-up market in our rec centres, or our libraries or a park,” Lehman said.
“It’s early days yet. We don’t know where, we don’t know when, that will be up to them.," he added.
The $25,000 could be used for city staff, such as preparing a parking lot or parking closures or assisting with logistics, or promoting the pop-up markets.
The task force’s funding subcommittee estimates a total cost of $29 million to $32 million during 13 to 15 years for the permanent market, Barrie Farmers’ Market and three or four additional buildings in the area, plus additional facilities such as a skating trail and artisans village. There would also be costs associated with providing Barrie Police Services with a new downtown home.
The funding subcommittee estimates operating costs to be about $550,000 annually, and that the market could operate on a break-even basis.
The city’s portion of the money would likely come from the city’s reinvestment reserve, which is funded by Barrie’s Alectra dividends and meant for community projects. It’s expected there would also be federal and provincial money, especially for the farmers’ market building.
Construction couldn’t begin until the bus terminal moves to Allandale, which is estimated for the spring of 2023. Work could take 16 months, so the market would be ready some time in 2024.
A plan will also be prepared to recommend the prioritization and timelines associated with applications for grants and sponsorship opportunities to cover the project’s capital costs, a business case for the market prepared as well as a precinct plan including a programming strategy, identification and implementation of market operations, detailed designs for the permanent market and farmers market, and signs.
A streetscape master plan strategy will be prepared, including possible recommendations for amendments to the Official Plan, zoning bylaw and the community improvement plan, a marketing and recruitment strategy will be undertaken and there will be collaboration with local developers.
Letters of intent will be secured for market vendors, a public art policy subcommittee will be created or there will be work with the existing Barrie public art committee.
The Barrie Bayside Market District will have a permanent market building with vendors offering goods six or seven days a week. The new farmers’ market building will be open to other groups and uses as well. Other buildings could be added to the area over time. The area surrounding the permanent market and the farmers’ market could draw complementary businesses, including restaurants and artisans.
The market could help revitalize the west end of the downtown, task force members say, not only because it will draw people to the market buildings themselves, but because merchants and restaurants could be attracted to the surrounding area. It will also provide farmers and craft people in Barrie and Simcoe County with a place to sell directly to customers, provide those living in the city’s core with another place to buy fresh groceries and encourage people to live in the city’s core.
Its location next to the waterfront could be a natural draw for both residents and tourists. It will be centred in an area which will see thousands of new people within a 15-minute walk during the next 10 to 20 years, people who will form the backbone of the daily visitors to the market. There are more than 4,000 units approved or in the approval process in the city centre and likely more in the coming years.
This area is seeing residential and commercial redevelopment with the Debut Condos now under construction immediately north of the market site and the SmartCentres development is a five-minute walk away, between Bradford Street and Lakeshore Drive.
The market site would also be half a block away from Dunlop Street, the main downtown commercial street, to which it would be connected not only by Maple and Mary streets but by a new store-lined arcade in the middle of the adjoining Debut condos, which also features commercial uses on all sides.
As Open Air Dunlop continues to evolve, there should also be a natural link to the market district.
There will also be a good fit with the Sandbox and the Small Business Centre on the second floor of the transit terminal, since the market area would serve as an incubator for food-and-craft-based businesses. The market will be just a couple of blocks from the proposed new performing arts centre, at the former Fisher auditorium site, and the market district itself would eventually spill into the neighbourhood immediately adjacent to the centre.
Costs of building the market will be included in the city’s capital budgets, beginning in 2023.
