Old Hickory Waterside Markets

The Old Hickory Waterside Markets project was designed to:

Key Priorities of Focus

This project focuses on all four of the CDC’s Key Priorities.

The LdB CDC, Old Hickory Buildings, the Rural Municipality of Lac du Bonnet, and the Manitoba Made Store have brought LdB a new pop-up market series. This year, we want to test the theory and work with you, the vendors, to make this vision a reality.

Old Hickory Buildings has donated two buildings for vendors to use during the Market. Building One is 7’ x 11’, or 77 square feet, and Building Two measures 9’ x 15’, or 135 square feet.

The Old Hickory Waterside Markets will take place at Fernwood Boat Launch, a high-traffic location in the heart of Lac du Bonnet’s Cottage community.

Surrounded by full and part-time residents, boaters, paddlers, explorers and community visitors, vendors will be exposed to high foot traffic, limited competitors, and an intimate country setting.

The Lac du Bonnet CDC hosted the first Market on August 19, 2022, and operated 8 more on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays until September 11, 2022.

The Market was a Huge Success!

During this initial test year, vendors were recording excellent sales, with some weekends producing over $1,500 in sales on-site and providing an increase in online orders generated from the advertising campaigns being produced by the Lac du Bonnet CDC.

The Lac du Bonnet CDC looks forward to working with its partners and the vendors who participated this year to develop this project for the 2023 Market Season fully. We plan to add more vendors, be located in a new location and provide additional entertainment over the summer months.

During the Great Outdoors Expo, the Lac du Bonnet CDC Economic Development Officer began a conversation with Old Hickory Buildings about the waterfront markets it was interested in developing.

Instead of receiving a quote on sheds, Old Hickory Buildings presented the CDC with a partnership opportunity. It would supply the sheds for the markets and allow business owners to set up pop-up shops. In exchange, Old Hickory Buildings would be permitted to display their signage on the units. From this conversation, the Lac du Bonnet CDC obtained an in-kind contribution of $70,000 from Old Hickory Buildings.

This partnership opportunity made the development of the waterfront markets a reality for the 2022 season, a year ahead of schedule, and planning for a test year began with the market partners.

The preferred location, Lee Side Park Boat Launch, was still under construction in 2022, so it was decided that Fernwood Boat Launch would be used to test the market’s viability in the community.

The Lac du Bonnet CDC would only use two buildings for its markets this year, so the EDO negotiated for the additional buildings to be placed at the Pit Stop Produce Market on Highway 317 to enhance the vendor and visitor experience of that market as well.

In March, the Lac du Bonnet CDC began discussing ways to set up tourism information centres at the boat launches in Lac du Bonnet. From this discussion, it was decided that the Lac du Bonnet CDC could partner with the business community to establish pop-up markets at boat launches that would allow:

1. The CDC to market and promote the community,
2. Provide a pop-up storefront for businesses, artisans, and musicians in the community,
3. Create an attraction in the RM of Lac du Bonnet,
4. Coordinate with the Safe Boating Ambassador Committee, which will be organizing boater safety education sessions at boat launches in the near future.

Discussions began with the owners of Manitoba Made, and research into purchasing sheds to act as storefronts began. The goal was to gather information and establish basic planning information to source grants to buy sheds for the 2023 season.