Outdoor bazaar aims to reflect diversity, bring shoppers to northeast Calgary

A new open-air market-style retail centre, which is being built in northeast Calgary this summer, is adding another ethnic shopping destination to that part of the city.

Savanna Bazaar is a 92,000-square-footproject being built on a corner of landin the new community of Savanna.

Royop Development Corporation says it'smodelled on traditional bazaars and markets in South Asia and the MiddleEast,but a key difference is that businesses will own their own retail spaces.

"I think it's going to draw people from all over the city," Royopdevelopment director Jacob Weber said.

"It's going to be a great hub for the community when it opens and in the future as things continue to develop around it."

He added thearea will be home to new condos, medical services, a big grocery store, othercommercial space and a future LRT station.

'Exciting format'

The concept is similar to the much larger New Horizon Mall being built north of the city nearCrossIronMills, in thatbusiness owners will buy space instead of leasing.

"We realized leasing and owning ourselves was maybe not the right thing to do for the market," Weber said.

"It's something that really seemedto connect to the demographic in that part of town," he added. "It's a really exciting format."

New Horizonis a much biggera320,000-square-foot site thatwillfeature 500 independently ownedstores and food stalls, selling goods from all over the world.

They're similar to projects in much bigger cities, such as Toronto and Vancouver.

Both projects present opportunities for the South Asian community's many entrepreneurs, Ward 5 Coun.George Chahalsaid.

"Savanna Bazaar is a great opportunity to open their own business, whether it's a restaurant, food store,a jewelry or clothing store," he said.

Chahalsaid he hopes ethnic retail, along with the northeast's array of restaurants and cultural diversity, might bring a few more visitors from other parts of the city.

"Northeast Calgary is such a diverse area and people are attracted to that diversity and so many cultures bring so much vibrancy to the area," the councillor said.

"We've seen exceptional retail and commercial development occurring in northeast Calgary, and also the residential communities that are growing at such a fast pace."

Construction on the project begins this summer. Developers expect it will be completed by Summer 2019.

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