A historic building on the southeast edge of Crescent Heights that started its life as a grocery store more than a century ago could soon be providing food to Calgarians in a very new way.
Sunspring Farms will be making its pitch to establish an urban vertical farm to members of the Calgary city council on Wednesday. The business is applying for a one-time grant of up to $250,000 from the Council Innovation Fund.
Sunspring’s co-founder and CEO Chad Kolesnik said he’s hoping to partner with the city and local not-for-profit Fresh Routes to grow produce hydroponically at the Armour/Reliance Block on 4th Street N.E.
Kolesnik said the plan is to start small in an adjacent storage space on the Armour Block property, with the goal of expanding into the main Armour Block Building if the 18-month pilot is successful. “The main focus for the pilot will be on growing leafy greens, microgreens, and fresh herbs,” he said. “Eventually, when we expand, we’ll be trying to scale up what we currently will be growing into things like strawberries.”
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