A POPULAR food and retail market in the city centre will close this weekend.
Trademarket on the Dublin Road is set to close on Sunday (July 14) as building work gets under way on the new headquarters of digital technology company Kainos.
In April, Kainos was given the green light to build its Bankmore Exchange HQ in the former Movie House Cinemas site where Trademarket is currently situated.
The open-air market, which hosted a range of retail outlets – mostly food and drink – opened in July 2022.
Despite launching a campaign to 'Save Trademarket' and move the market to the neighbouring Bankmore Square ahead of the summer, the team at Trademarket were unable to secure a new location before the end of the temporary lease from Kainos. But hope remains that Trademarket will emerge again at an as-yet unlocated venue.
In a message to traders and customers, Trademarket thanked everyone for their support over the past two years and issued an update on the possibility of a new venue.
In a post on social media, they said: "Just a quick post to let you all know that Trademarket will be closing its doors for the final time at our current home on Sunday 14th July.
"We haven’t been able to secure a new site just yet, but we continue to work behind the scenes to make this happen and hope to have good news to share on this in the near future.
"We’d like to thank every trader that has been a part of the Trademarket journey, all of our team members, friends, partners and suppliers for their support and most of all you, our customers, for joining us week in and week out, rain or shine, and making Trademarket a very special place, greater than we could have ever hoped.
"This won’t be the end for us, we’re just taking a little break. Be sure to support the independent businesses of Trademarket in the coming weeks. See you all soon."
