Market halls are spaces where various vendors can sell food and other articles from stalls. (Lauryn Mackenzie/CHLY 101.7FM)

Steiner (pictured) said they are hopeful to have the whole building up and running by next year. (Lauryn Mackenzie/CHLY 101.7FM)

Owners of the Soundworks Market Hall hosted a preview of the former A&B Sound building, with the hope of seeing it again become a landmark for the downtown core.

A&B Sound, a music and electronic retailer which closed its doors in 2008 across Western Canada, was founded by Fred Steiner. The building is now undergoing a complete overhaul in downtown Nanaimo.

Steiner Properties held the event on Thursday, November 20, to update attendees on how the construction is progressing and what people can expect when the doors officially open for the Soundworks Market Hall.

Jake Steiner is the director of Steiner Properties.

Steiner said Soundworks will be Nanaimo’s first market hall-style space. Market halls are spaces where various vendors can sell food and other articles from stalls.

“What people can expect is a hub where, before work, after work, they've got a place that they can hang out at,” Steiner said. “What ‘food and ‘beverage’ mean, there are a few vendors that grab and go, and then there are a few that are more like sit-down, family-style restaurants.”

As market halls are already popping up in larger cities in the country, like Vancouver and Calgary, Steiner said he is excited to try out this concept in Nanaimo.

“We want this to feel like the place where the Nanaimo Mountain Biking Association does their pre- or post-ride meet up here, or people after work said, ‘Where are we going?’ ‘We’re Soundworks,’ and you can walk, or you can drive, or you can take the transit,” he said.

Steiner said they are hopeful to have the whole building up and running by next year.

“We hope to be open in 2026, hopefully in the good weather like summertime. The perfect time that I see this being is actually the shoulder season, the winter. Because where does anybody want to go when it's pouring rain and it's cold? It's probably more of an interior environment like this,” he said. “So we'll have a covered patio outside, a year-round outdoor space, and then in here it'll feel like a breezeway, connecting indoors to outdoors. So 2026, but honestly, it's gonna shine in the gray, gloomy kind of season.”

Steiner Properties held the event on Thursday, November 20, to update attendees on how the construction is progressing and what people can expect when the doors officially open for the Soundworks Market Hall. (Lauryn Mackenzie/CHLY 101.7FM)

While they are in talks with both national chains and local food places to rent out spaces, no names have been released to the public yet.

“There can be a mix of pizza, Indian, desserts and confectionery. So your whole kind of like ‘A.M. to P.M.’ suite and a whole diverse range of food types,” Steiner said. “We're getting interest from non-food groups, like art galleries and pilates studios. So those third spaces where you go to be active and go to do stuff that you do every day, we want it to feel like a true downtown where we can live, work and play here.”

To make sure “local” is at the forefront of the market hall, Soundworks will be putting on a contest, inviting local entrepreneurs, creatives, and small businesses to pitch their concept for a chance to win one full year of free rent inside the hall.

Sammar Charif, marketing consultant here for Steiner properties, told CHLY about the Reimage This Space contest, coming early next year.

“Essentially, we will be doing a call out to all of the people in Nanaimo and surrounding area, anyone who's interested, whether you have an at home business, or you have a dream that you just haven't had the opportunity to really execute, because you need a storefront, and getting a storefront is hard,” Charif said, “We will be bringing in people from all different areas and different interests to apply for an exclusive space here in our Soundworks Market Hall.”

Charif said the winner of the contest would get a small space right in the middle of the market.

“So we're not necessarily looking for just food and beverage. Of course, this will be a food market hall, but we're very, very open. If you have a really cool merch business that you've been running out of your home, and you want a storefront, or maybe you make something, we're very, very open,” she said. “I think what we're just looking for is, like, innovative, cool ideas that people will be excited about and that have the legs to be successful in a space like this.”

She said winners won't only win the space but also other perks that would help strengthen and grow their business.

“We want to make this an approachable thing that anyone has a chance to see through a dream,” she said. “We're not necessarily looking for someone who already has a full-fledged business in a storefront; we want to make this an incubator opportunity for somebody who has an idea, and we have the people behind you to help support and the community support.”

Charif said more information on the Reimage This Space contest will come out at the end of January, with the contest opening at the beginning of February.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.