Finishing touches as Riverside Market prepares to open
Friday, 27 September 2019
Eateries and stallholders going into Christchurch's new Riverside Market are working overtime to be ready for customers when the new complex opens its doors.
Opening day for the seven-day-a-week indoor farmers market has been confirmed as Monday at 9am, after being delayed a few weeks.
However not all eateries and stallholders will be ready to go on day one. The businesses will open progressively from the launch date with a grand opening to be held on Saturday next week.
The $80 million central city indoor complex, a five year project from conception to opening, has been built on Oxford Tce, Lichfield and Cashel sts.
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With 30 food outlets and 40 market stalls plus a food collective and rooftop bars and restaurants, it aims to attract 10,000 customers a day, or up to 15,000 daily at weekends.
One of the market's developers and owners, Mike Percasky, said they aimed to be waste-free and have low food miles for the products they sell.
All goods' packaging must be compostable or recyclable, and the market will sort its waste on-site, he said.
'We are hoping for a zero waste, which is pretty ambitious.
'Obviously that won't happen on day one, but we're putting things in place so when new technology is available we'll be in a position to take advantage of it.'
The market is asking shoppers to be prepared with their 'baskets, beeswax wraps, glass jars, and keep cups', saying running the place sustainably will be 'one big team effort'.
Percasky said all fresh produce would be grown locally where possible to reduce food miles. The will include vegetables grown by urban farm Cultivate Christchurch, a social enterprise run on a Peterborough St site 1.5 kilometres from the market.
The market is working with Cultivate Christchurch to return composted waste to its gardens, Percasky said.
Sustainability has also been a focus for the market building, he said. In a few months once the market's energy usage is known, they will start installing solar panels on the roof.
Recycled materials used in construction include bricks from demolished parts of the Duncan's buildings in High St, timber from demolished quake-damaged central city buildings and old Lyttelton wharves, and two clock faces from the old Moorhouse Ave railway station.
The market's owners – Percasky, Richard Peebles and Kris Inglis – first began work on the project in 2016. A block of shops facing Cashel St are also part of the complex, as is a cooking school.
Peebles has recently bought extra land land to connect the site with neighbours' properties, creating a laneway linking Riverside with Ballantynes at the other end of the block.
Businesses in Riverside are expected to include: Butcher's Mistress, Castro's, Eightgrains, Noodle Monk, Bacon Bros Burgers, Hanoi Alley, Kombucha Bar, Underground Coffee, Malaysian Delights, Donut Dispensary, Fritz Wieners, Dimitris, Cashmere Cuisine, Empire Chicken, Pedro's Kitchen, Brewery Collective, Little Fish Co, Le Panier Patisserie, El Quincho, and Pure Pulp.
The second phase of the market, which will include three full-service restaurants, will open upstairs in early November.
Retailers in the lanes next to the main hall are opening progressively over the coming weeks.