It’s all change for the City Market as it relocates to Front Street this weekend.

The weekly market has historically been held at Bulls Head Parking Lot, but this Saturday it will move into its new home at Pier Six in the newly renovated cruise ship terminal.

City of Hamilton events manager Danilee Trott is excited about the event’s new location, which has encouraged new vendors to take part.

“Front Street is the place to be,” she said. “It’s high visibility, everyone comes through Front Street at some point in time, and we think it will be a great spot for the City Market. We hope that everyone enjoys it and supports the event.

“We have a lot of new vendors coming to the market. It attracted a new element that we didn’t previously have. They are excited to be on Front Street, they are excited to know that it doesn’t matter if it’s raining or not. It’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen in a great location.”

The event will be one of the first events to take advantage of the newly renovated lower floor of the building, which had until recently been home of AS Coopers.

While the area will be used as a cruise ship terminal when ships are in port, she said the area can otherwise be rented out for various events.

“It’s a great new space because it’s not only newly renovated, but it’s wide open,” she said. “We are really excited about it. It’s great for everything from a party to a wedding reception, a conference or a meeting space.

“The upstairs has also been renovated. There were offices that have been removed. The bathrooms and kitchen have been updated, and outside we have added a new structure so it’s completely covered. It can be open with the sides off or it can be completely enclosed.”

Senior engineer for the City Ian Hind said the renovation project faced several challenges, most significantly a looming deadline.

“We had six weeks, which was a pretty demanding schedule to say the least,” he said.

“I found contractors I could rely on who would work together. At times you might have plumbers and electrical and drywallers working one after the other. Here, they had to work at the same time so it was important they could work well together to get it done in such a ridiculous time-frame.”

He said contractors tore out old carpeting and shelving, rewired electric circuits, repaired plumbing and repainted both inside and outside of the building.

While final work is still ongoing, Mr Hind said the terminal was up and running in time for the arrival of the Silver Whisper on October 31, and received positive reviews from customs and security staff.

“They came in for the first time to see it, and they said it was way better than what they had,” Mr Hind said. “They never had a little office before, they didn’t have decent washrooms which they now have. They have a lovely view. They all loved it.”

He also noted that because the lower floor of the building is now being used as the terminal, visitors no longer have to go up a ramp to reach the second floor, making the passenger terminal more accessible.

The City of Hamilton will host an open house in the renovated building between 1pm and 6pm on Friday, while the location will host City Market on Saturday between 8am and 1pm.