The Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market will likely have to fold and declare bankruptcy.
The market’s manager said the last market day could be Jan. 28.
The board of directors for the market association has called a special meeting for all members on Jan. 27 “to consider the immediate future and to consider the board’s recommendation to cease operating, to vacate the building and file for bankruptcy,” Elaine Doucette told Global News on Friday.
“We’ve been in this current location for over four years. The move that we did from 104th Street to this building coincided with the global (COVID-19) pandemic. We had … east downtown recovery issues.
“We didn’t really get the vibrancy in this location that we needed.”
When the market moved from 104th Street to the historic Army & Navy building at 103rd Avenue and 97th Street in 2020, it had 250 vendors, Doucette said. Now it has just 60.
“We saw a big — huge — loss in our vendor base, which is our means of income, and it continues to shrink to the point where we cannot sustain this location,” she said.
The market is open year-round Saturdays and Sundays.
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“This current building is very high in utilities so it’s really hit us. We just haven’t made it back from that previous move and break with the pandemic,” Doucette said.
The market took a CEBA loan but paid it back. Now, it’s just having trouble with other debt — namely the infrastructure fees and utilities.
“We’ve known for some time that things were not great. But that said, we were all very, very hopeful that solutions could be found.” said Kodiak Dubhan with Big G Foods, one of the vendors at the Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market.
“The memories of all the fond friendships and the community here is going to stick with me,” said Rosslyn Boulanger with Archive Boutique. “It’s like a family, right? Not only the vendors but all the people who are coming here and supporting us are like good friends to me now.”
The market’s lease ends in April 2024, Doucette said. The landlord is the city, which is leasing it from a private corporation. The market board of directors has been working with both.
“We knew they had some financial challenges over the years, and that it hasn’t been easy for them since they made the move,” said Puneeta McBryan with the Downtown Business Association. “it was it was definitely heartbreaking. I think everyone in the downtown community is feeling that.”
In June 2023, the market’s board said it could no longer afford the operating costs of the 113-year-old Army & Navy building and would have to move.
“They’ve exhausted all options,” Doucette said. “They’ve been working on it for years. There is potential for more loans, but as a non-profit, to take out even more debt at this point would be against bylaw unless we voted it out, so we’re just going to fold.”
The board is hopeful someone else might find a way to keep the downtown market tradition going.
In a Jan. 18 news release, the Edmonton Downtown Farmers Market Association (EDFMA) board of directors said “a group of dedicated volunteers has been making arrangements to return to an outdoor summer street market in 2024.
“The city, through its Downtown Vibrancy Fund, has approved a proposal and funding to proceed with a new outdoor street market and year-round building in the 104 Street area. However, given its financial position, the EDFMA is unable to proceed with these plans.”
The board said there’s been so much support for the return of a 104th Street market and it hopes another group will be able to make that happen.
“We are looking forward to potentially another entity taking over,” Doucette said. “As this entity, we got too far in the hole with the unsustainable choice of moving to this location, the building, the pandemic.
“The location, the cost of this old building and the global pandemic just really crushed us.”