[Halifax] Seaport Farmers' Market | - | - | Complete

[Keith P.]

The Seaport Market was ill-advised from day one with a great many issues. This document from 2012, if you can get past the somewhat dramatic novel writing style in parts, lays them out:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile...ers-Market.pdf

People were essentially sold a feel-good bill of goods that allowed an overly ambitious and expensive project to be funded by various govt and quasi-govt groups and run by an unqualified group. Lots of blame to go around here. By the time HPA took it over it had become mostly a place for cruise ship passengers to buy a tea cosy. HPA was never interesting in or qualified to run a market, having as one of their main areas of interest the cruise ship business. They are the main beneficiary of that business, with local businesses consistently stating that aside from souvenir items, cruise passengers spent relatively little on things from shore-based businesses since food and drink was supplied on the ship as part of their fare.

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

The Seaport Market was ill-advised from day one with a great many issues. This document from 2012, if you can get past the somewhat dramatic novel writing style in parts, lays them out:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile...ers-Market.pdf

People were essentially sold a feel-good bill of goods that allowed an overly ambitious and expensive project to be funded by various govt and quasi-govt groups and run by an unqualified group. Lots of blame to go around here. By the time HPA took it over it had become mostly a place for cruise ship passengers to buy a tea cosy. HPA was never interesting in or qualified to run a market, having as one of their main areas of interest the cruise ship business. They are the main beneficiary of that business, with local businesses consistently stating that aside from souvenir items, cruise passengers spent relatively little on things from shore-based businesses since food and drink was supplied on the ship as part of their fare.

I remember way back when they sought public "investment" supported by generous tax deductions. I can only imagine the massive losses these poor souls must have suffered!

[Keith P.]

What I did not know but learned from that 2012 document was that not only were they running a significant operating loss in their first 2 years and had gone through 3 different managers, but that there were major deficiencies in the design and layout of the space itself, including what the document described as a rodent problem in the "living wall" concept. Yikes.

[kzt79]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

What I did not know but learned from that 2012 document was that not only were they running a significant operating loss in their first 2 years and had gone through 3 different managers, but that there were major deficiencies in the design and layout of the space itself, including what the document described as a rodent problem in the "living wall" concept. Yikes.

Oh wow, I had just looked at what the link initially displayed. I've now downloaded the whole PDF and will check it out, thanks.