The Gibsons Public Market (GPM) had its grand opening on April 29 where Squamish Nation representatives blessed the structure and those inside it with cedar boughs as a way to “make space for good, positive things to happen,” according to Nancy Grenier of GPM.
“It was a really powerful ceremony,” she said, adding many were moved.
Close to 600 people came to the market for the event.
After the ceremony, guests enjoyed cake and refreshments before perusing the market at 473 Gower Point Rd., which boasts a large community use space, community kitchen, café, bistro, rentable rooms and seven vendors selling everything from home-grown vegetables to handmade chocolates.
The April 29 event marked a milestone for the market, which is now set up and fully functional, save for the Nicholas Sonntag Marine Education Centre, slated for a phased opening this summer.
“We’re really, really excited about the marine education centre,” said GPM’s society president, Pam Robertson, this week.
“In many ways the Nicholas Sonntag Marine Education Centre is really the heart of our project, so getting it up and running is really exciting. It will phase in because we will have live animal exhibits and we need to make sure that our life support system is all working properly.”
The three-storey-tall fish tank that will host sea life in the marine education centre was set up for the opening with papier-mâché fish and rocks in order to give patrons a taste of what they might see there come summer.
Robertson said the GPM has the funds needed to get the marine education centre built; however, the market still plans to fundraise another $750,000 in the coming months to supplement rental rates so public spaces can continue to be used, free of charge.
“We want to make sure that we can have access by the community to all sorts of components of the building, and so in order for us to do that and not have to be constantly renting the building out, we have to raise that additional $750,000 so we can get the right balance,” Robertson said.
She noted the GPM has already raised about $100,000 of that $750,000 goal and she has no doubt they’ll raise the rest.
“If you think about the money we raised in the beginning for the Town of Gibsons to invest in the real estate, that was $275,000, and then the money that we’ve raised for the building and then we’ve also raised additional operating funds to help us operate the marine education centre. When you add it up, it’s about $4 million and so we’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing and we’ll be able to raise this final amount,” Robertson said.
The GPM is operated by the non-profit Gibsons Community Building Society, which has 32 members in various roles on the board of directors and board of governors.
Members are “individuals who have played a key role in the development of the society.” In the beginning, three families each invested $100,000 to help purchase the land. Once the society was set up, it took over those shares.
Now the society holds 40 per cent of the market’s real estate ownership. The Town of Gibsons, by way of a bare trust agreement, holds 39 per cent. The Community Futures Development Corporation holds 14 per cent and the Sunshine Coast Community Foundation has the remaining seven per cent.
As a major co-owner, the Town of Gibsons has a say in how the GPM is developed, used and, if ever necessary, liquidated.
Find out more about the Gibsons Public Market at www.gibsonspublicmarket.com
See more photos in our online galleries at www.coastreporter.net
